Toronto Hosts the FIFA World Cup!

No, that's not a typo or a mistake in the title. As Canada's largest city and the most multicultural metropolitan area on Earth, Toronto enjoys a special atmosphere every two years: the FIFA World Cup and Euro Cup are a month-long party during which we embrace our immigrant roots and celebrate the achievements of the national team from the "old country." We have to because, quite frankly, Canada has only ever sent a team to the WC finals once, in 1986, and results were less than stellar: we hold the embarrassing distinction of being the only team to exit from the first round without a single goal scored, I believe.

 Toronto is a city of historically ethnic neighbourhoods, and the culture of these traditional areas has been preserved even though many of its original inhabitants have prospered and moved out to the suburbs. There are well-known spots such as Little Italy and Little Portugal in the west end, Greektown in the east, and French bistros and English pubs in the downtown core.  Bars of various heritage groups exist across the wider city, and are well-known to the fans who flock to watch the live games of their favourite teams. The Musket is where you go cheer for Germany, El Rancho will shout Olé for Spain, and the Café Diplomatico will be painted blue and shouting 'Forza Azzurri'. In fact, the local papers often publish a thorough list of where one can go to follow any team. Quite often, when a country has won a game or moved on to the next round, celebrations involve streaming into its traditional ethnic neighbourhood with flags to party and make a lot of noise. In 2002, when Korea and Japan hosted, the time difference made it impossible to record games to watch later in certain enclaves: Little Italy often erupted into cheers in the early hours, to the annoyance of residents trying to sleep.

Spanish supporters after the last Euro Cup.

The other local custom during the World Cup involves the proliferation of national flags on cars, and much like the pubs, there is an etiquette to follow: you can display a small flag on the window of your car, but if your team is eliminated, it must come down immediately. This year, there are also decorations for the rear view mirrors, adding to the colour bursts in the busy city traffic. Tomorrow, my German and French colours will each rest on one window side, and my personal prediction is that the bleu-blanc-rouge tricolour will fall first. Thank God for the dual heritage, I say.

There is also good-natured ribbing between friends during this month-long sport celebration. As my passionate Italian colleague Frank repeats every four years, "the Portuguese cheer for Portugal until they get eliminated, then for Brazil, and if they fall, they become Argentinian or Spanish. The Italians only have one team." I always remind him of the beautiful results of the 2000 Euro Cup, when the ridiculous added time gave France the goal it needed to force extra time and then triumph over the Azzurri. As you can see, soccer fans have long memories in this city.

There have sometimes been taunts and displays of aggressive fan behaviour in past years, but overall, the World Cup in Toronto is a chance to enjoy the beautiful summer weather and to socialize in public spots around the city. It is a global game well-suited to this global city, and seems to bring us closer together as we cheer on our teams and celebrate each advance of our favourite one. It is Toronto at its best, and this time, we're in the same time zone as the other host nation, Brazil. This means we can watch in prime time, get plenty of sleep after we've had plenty of drinks.  Good luck to all the teams, although if I could have my way, it would be a French-German final!