Canadian Support

[BlackburnBri]

Hello from England! I am interested to know a little bit about the football (sorry soccer) culture in Canada. I have a Canadian girlfriend and when i ask her she just looks puzzled and tells me its "a sport for the ladies"... this cant be true, can it? Is there a Canadian football league? What are the mainly followed English teams? And most important of all... when i visit, will i be able to see live English games on your TV? Sorry for the barrage of questions, but i need to know or else when the time comes to visit her family in NS, i might be "to ill" to travel i.e stay at home with a few beers and watch the match! Cheers lads and lassies!

[Captain Canuck]

Hello from England! I am interested to know a little bit about the football (sorry soccer) culture in Canada. I have a Canadian girlfriend and when i ask her she just looks puzzled and tells me its "a sport for the ladies"... this cant be true, can it?


In some ways it is because we have a lot of females that play the sport along with a lot of men. Its not true that it is just a sport of the ladies here though.


Is there a Canadian football league?


There is, but it is what you'd likely call "American football" - the Canadian equivalent of the NFL rather than the Canadian equivalent of the beautiful game.

There is no professional Canadian soccer league currently. There was in the past, but the league died and attempts to get a new one going have failed. There are currently 3 teams in the USL First Division (which is the US 2nd tier of play), Toronto Lynx, Vancouver Whitecaps & Montreal Impact. A different organization from Toronto than the one that owns the Lynx is joining the top-flight US league, the MLS in 2007, and many of us hope they are joined by the Vancouver & Montreal outfits - time will tell if that happens.

I should mention that this is by no means unusual for Canadian sport - our hockey, baseball and basketball pro teams also play in North American leagues, rather than Canada-only. The exception to the rule is the aforementioned CFL.


What are the mainly followed English teams?


The usual big ones, especially Man U, Liverpool. I think Tottenham have picked up a few more followers than usual amongst Canadian soccer supporters because of the inclusion of Paul Stalteri. The big European teams from England, Scotland, Italy, Croatia, Portugal and Greece tend to have large supporter clubs operating in Canada.


And most important of all... when i visit, will i be able to see live English games on your TV?

Yes. If you want to watch our national team play on TV that can be a bit of a problem (our game against the US next week is not being televised, for example), but a barrage of live English matches (mainly EPL) are shown live in Canada every weekend on a whole batch of different stations. Check out listings and availability of Rogers Sportsnet, The Score, and Fox Sports World Canada when you get here. We also have Gol TV, a 24 hour soccer channel but they don't show any English league games IIRC. Quite a few Blackburn games have been shown here over the years though the top teams of the EPL get shown with the most regularity.

[BlackburnBri]

Thanks for the info mate and good luck to the teams breaking into the American league.

[perucho79]

There is intereste here in Cnada for soccer, but not for the National team people follow more european football

[squadra_azzurri]

soccer a girl sport? hmm wierd,, only a neufie would say that ;) aha .. anyways maybe she said that because we high in the ranks in womens soccer than mens. In Canada our games are on Saturdays in the morning (Eastern time) like around 8. The games are shown on Sportsnet so check out the site www.sportsnet.ca and look for the date you will be there and thats the game it will be showing. Most loved team in EPL in Ontario... hmm maybe manchester united because they are advertised more than any other EPL team in canada.

and about your beer, its great here too, we got a rep for that in N.A