Star-studded World Cup draw serves as glitzy kickoff to FIFA’s chief money-maker

Canada's head coach Jesse Marsch and Prime Minister Mark Carney speak to Canada players following international friendly soccer action between Canada and Australia, in Montreal, on Friday, October 10, 2025. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Christopher Katsarov

For co-host Canada, Friday’s World Cup draw in Washington, D.C., provides a tournament road map for Jesse Marsch’s 27th-ranked side.

For FIFA, it marks the glitzy kickoff to its showcase event — the cash cow that funds its operations for the next four years.

Prime Minister Mark Carney, U.S. President Donald Trump and Mexico’s President Claudia Sheinbaum are among the A-listers taking in a star-studded draw cast that includes co-hosts Heidi Klum and Kevin Hart as well as Tom Brady, Shaquille O’Neal, Wayne Gretzky, Aaron Judge, Robbie Williams, Andrea Bocelli, Nicole Scherzinger and the Village People.

Brady, O’Neil, Gretzky and Judge, marquee names from the NFL, NBA, NHL and MLB, will assist former England captain Rio Ferdinand in the actual draw process at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. Williams, Bocelli, Scherzinger and the Village People will provide the entertainment.

Former NFL quarterback Eli Manning will serve as “red carpet host.”

“Blending sport, entertainment and spectacle like never before, the show will reveal the group-stage matchups for the first-ever 48-team FIFA World Cup, marking the beginning of a new era for the world’s game,” FIFA declared.

They say you have to spend money to make money. Consider the draw Exhibit A.

FIFA reports the sale of rights related to the 2022 World Cup in Qatar accounted for 83 per cent (US$6.314 billion) of its total revenue from 1999 to 2022 (US$7.568 billion). And that was for a 32-team, 64-game tournament with 3,182,406 tickets sold.

The expanded 2026 edition, with 48 teams and 104 games, is making more than six million tickets available, according to FIFA. FIFA’s projected revenue for 2023-26 is a record US$13 billion, up from the US$10.9 billion in the initial budget approved by the FIFA Congress in 2023.

FIFA vice-president Victor Montagliani, a Vancouver native who doubles as CONCACAF president, says 80 to 85 per cent of that goes back to the 211 member associations.

“This tournament feeds, for the next four years, 211 countries,” he said.

About 50 per cent of the revenue from the last two World Cups was profit, according to Montagliani.

Friday will be a special day for Montagliani.

“It’s sort of like you’re inviting everybody to your house for a nice party. But you’ve been working on it for a long time.” he said.

Montagliani says he feels “a double sense of pride,” as a Canadian and CONCACAF president.

“It’s going to be a pretty special moment on Friday,” he added.

The idea of Canada hosting the men’s World Cup dates back to a dinner in 2011. Montagliani, then president of Canada Soccer, was breaking bread with Peter Montopoli, then Canada Soccer’s general secretary, and Walter Sieber, director-general of sports at the 1976 Montreal Olympics and a man plugged into the world governing body of soccer.

They had just won hosting rights to the 2015 Women’s World Cup.

Not everyone was on board. Montagliani recalls a Toronto newspaper that called him a “whack job” for believing Canada could bid and host the tournament.

“I actually cut the article out and I keep it in my drawer at my desk here at home,” he said with a laugh.

Montagliani points to Canada hosting the 2007 FIFA U-20 World Cup as a key signpost on the road that led to the 2026 World Cup.

“Without that you have no stadium in Toronto, you have no MLS in Toronto. Because I don’t think any private entity builds that stadium.”

Kevan Pipe, then chief operating officer of Canada Soccer, led the way in getting BMO Field built — bringing various levels of government together.

“He made it happen. Real credit to Kevan,” said Montopoli. “Without that stadium, I don’t know where we would be.”

The then-bare-bones, city-owned stadium was built on a $62.9-million shoestring as part of the deal to bring the 2007 FIFA U-20 World Cup and Major League Soccer to Canada. More than $300 million has been spent since in improving and upsizing the lakeside venue, including $146 million in World Cup upgrades.

While Friday’s draw will populate the 12 groups, the match schedule itself won’t be released until Saturday. Marsch already knows, however, that Canada will open the tournament June 12 at Toronto’s BMO Field — likely with a global TV audience of more than 350 million, according to Montagliani — before heading west to play the remaining two games in Vancouver on June 18 and 24 at B.C. Place Stadium.

Montopoli says the draw/schedule could have a major impact outside the stadiums.

Consider, for example, what Toronto would be like if Italy survived the European playoffs and made it to Canada’s group given the number of locals with Italian heritage.

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This report by The Canadian Press was first published Dec. 4, 2025.

Neil Davidson, The Canadian Press