Bob Mackin
Vancouver marked the one-year countdown to FIFA World Cup 26 on June 11 by unveiling a countdown clock in front of a few hundred invitees at a fenced-off Terry Fox Plaza.
Children played soccer on a makeshift artificial turf pitch outside B.C. Place Stadium where a natural grass/synthetic hybrid pitch will be installed for seven matches between June 13 and July 7, 2026.
Spencer Chandra Herbert, the NDP minister responsible for FIFA 26, said a budget update is expected by the end of June. Last year, predecessor Lana Popham said it could cost as much as $581 million.
Chandra Herbert spent less than five minutes in a scrum with reporters. He left without answering questions from theBreaker.news about how Metro Vancouver’s stressed hospitals will cope with an influx of World Cup visitors and B.C. government support for FIFA sponsors Saudi Aramco oil and Qatar Airways, whose state owners ban same-sex relationships.
Earlier, Vancouver Mayor Ken Sim vowed the city would “make the necessary investments” for safety and security, but he did not say how much that would cost. He also denied that homeless people in the Downtown Eastside would be displaced.
“The challenges that we have with our unhoused population, this is an ongoing thing with, you know, cities throughout the region, and so, you know, at the end of the day, this is something that we address, today, yesterday and tomorrow, and that will be ongoing,” Sim said.
Chantelle Spicer, an advocate for the city’s poor, is not convinced.
“This does not give us confidence that people’s rights will be respected during such a large sporting event where the city hopes to draw in investment and tourism,” said Spicer, campaign manager with the B.C. Poverty Reduction Coalition (BCPRC).
Spicer told theBreaker.news that the coalition is especially concerned about displacement of homeless, the impact of increased surveillance and policing on people in public spaces and impacts on people depending on public transit and social services.
To that end, Spicer said BCPRC has made numerous unsuccessful attempts to connect with the local FIFA 26 organizing committee to learn if and how it intends to uphold human rights and mitigate any harms from the mega event.
“We have been met with silence, brush-offs, or meetings we persistently try to organize over months only to not get any real answers,” Spicer said. “There is an utter lack of accountability or opportunity for real stakeholder engagement with frontline service providers in the DTES or people who will be impacted by the games.”
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