‘I don’t want to give my money to Fifa’: Toronto turns its back on the World Cup

A s far back as he can remember, football has long been a part of Lawrence Yee’s life. Growing up in a Canadian town where hockey was the dominant sport, he found community and passion in the game. The sport – and the full, at times devastating, spectrum of emotion that comes with fandom – has remained braided into adulthood. Nearly four years ago, when Fifa announced Toronto and Vancouver would join 14 other cities in hosting the World Cup , Yee was ecstatic. “Hearing the biggest stage, the highest competition, the biggest tournament in the world was coming into Toronto ? I couldn’t believe it,” he said. “It’s the opportunity of a lifetime for someone like me. Being able to live in the city and cycle to the venue? I knew I’d be the first in line for tickets.” But when Canada takes to the field to play Bosnia and Herzegovina on 12 June, the first men’s World Cup match ever played on Canadian soil, Yee won’t be in the stands. Nor will he attend any of the other group stage games. His initial excitement – and that of hundreds of thousands of others in the country – has collided with Fifa’s new pricing structure for tickets , where fans are being asked to pay what they feel are exorbitant prices for tickets. Less than two weeks before Vancouver and Toronto host games, hundreds of tickets for each of the 10 games in Canada remain unsold, a reality that appears at odds with previous reports of overwhelming demand. …