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World Cup in Toronto
World Cup in Toronto
  • World Cup Fans in Toronto
    • 2006 World Cup in Toronto
    • 2010 World Cup in Toronto
    • 2014 World Cup in Toronto
    • 2018 World Cup in Toronto
    • 2022 World Cup in Toronto
  • Where to Watch World Cup in Toronto 2026
    • Where to Watch World Cup in Toronto 2026
    • 2022 Archive
    • 2018 Archive
    • 2014 Archive
    • 2010 Archive
  • About the Project
    • About the Project
    • About the Photographer
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World Cup in Toronto

About the Project

World Cup in Toronto

A Photographer's Search for World Cup Fans in Toronto

While it is incredibly exciting that Toronto will finally be hosting it’s first World Cup game in 2026, it has always been an amazing city to watch the World Cup. Perhaps the best city in the world.

In the summer of 2006, my goal was simple, to find pockets of fans in and around Toronto cheering for teams from all 32 countries playing in the World Cup while watching a live televised game of their team. If successful, I would be able to travel the world within my greater city limits. And I did. Over the month-long tournament, I drove over 800 KM (500 miles) and found fans from every country in the World Cup by visiting bars, convention centres, church basements and individual homes. It was only the beginning of my journey to discover so much about my city, its people, the world and the beautiful game, a project that has continued and will continue, every four years, for the rest of my life.

Having worked on this project for five tournaments and almost 20 years, I’ve now celebrated and agonized with fans rooting for 55 different countries, During that time, I have learned the project is about more than a tournament and its fans, it is about a city, the most multicultural city in the world. I have also learned that this project is about more than soccer, it is about sport, the most beloved around the world. It demonstrates unapologetically how people from all corners of the world are united in the agony and ecstasy of sport, and how sports can strengthen the bonds of national pride and global citizenship in a city welcoming to all.

All images were taken during a live television broadcast of a World Cup game. As a result, all of the reactions and passions within the photos are live and on location, not recreated or staged after or before the event.

This project presents an alternative to typical Toronto World Cup photos; that is, fans waving flags in the street or viewers caught frozen with a flash. The images in this project use only the natural light provided so as not to interfere with those watching the games or the environment itself. As a result, many of the images are dark, due to the limited light available in darkened viewing areas. Some photos are blurry, due to the frenzy of the games most exciting moments. Joseph Michael felt this was the only way to take truly authentic pictures of viewers watching the World Cup.

Toronto

A World Class City

Every four years, there is a colourful transformation in Toronto. It begins slowly, in the late spring, when out of the grey of winter appears a smattering of colour, on street corners and balcony windows, growing slowly here and there, becoming, by early June, a full fledged symphony of colour across the city. It is ubiquitous. This transformation does not arrive simply from the changing seasons or a summer festival, it is a harbinger. A harbinger for the passion of sport, historical roots and a greater acknowledgement that we are all a part of something bigger. Every four years, flags from every corner of the world adorn what feels like every inch of the city, pets and vehicles become profoundly patriotic, brightening the landscape with bold colours, challenging the vexillology of even the most knowledgeable citizens.

As a young man growing up in the city, I first distinctly remember this transformation on my drive to high school in 1994. For two years, my brother and I had been making the same 25 minute commute through mostly working class neighbourhoods with small family shops, cafes and bars and some of the last remaining urban slaughterhouses in the city. Then one summer, in the last months of the school year, everything changed. These same sleepy neighbourhoods came alive with new flavours and colours, declaring distinct national pride, not for Canada, but for a wide variety of other homelands and mother countries. I had no idea what was going on.

My family is a sports family. Baseball in the summer, football in the fall, hockey and basketball in the winter. To us, there was only one kind of football, and it was American football. Realizing that Toronto’s colourful transformation was all for some soccer tournament was both humbling and a little bit embarrassing. I had a feeling there was a lot more I needed to learn about sports, and my city.

The curiosity stayed with me and when I returned to Toronto as a young photographer in 2006, after 8 years of school and work in the United States, Ireland and South Korea, I decided to delve more deeply into soccer mystery. That summer, while the FIFA World Cup was being played in Germany, I decided to explore the fandom and the passion here in Toronto.

I believe Toronto is one of the few cities in which this project could have been completed. Most remarkable is that of the many nations in the 2006, 2010. 2014 and 2018, 2022 World Cup, some of Toronto’s largest ethnic communities, such as the Irish, Chinese, Indian and Pakistani, are not represented.

Media

Television Interviews

In 2010 I has two CBC television interviews about his coverage of the world cup in 2006. This first one is an interview with Connie Walker and was featured on CBC Television: Connect with Mark Kelley. It was shot in Scallywags bar on St. Clair West on the opening day of the 2010 World Cup. Scallywags was one of the great World Cup venues in Toronto, it will be missed.

In a much different environment, CBC news also invited me to their Toronto studio to do an interview with Anne-Marie Mediwake. They talked about specific photos he had taken in 2006 and 2010. This interview was conducted on June 14, 2010.

To reach out to Joseph for media contacts or interviews, please see our contact page.

This page is about Joseph Michael Howarth, the World Cup in Toronto photographer. Between World Cups, he is a commercial photographer, wedding photographer, family photographer and all around Toronto photographer serving the entire GTA. 

Recent Posts

  • Argentina – 2022 – Final – Champions – St Clair Avenue W
  • Senegal – 2022
  • Morocco – 2022
  • England – 2022
  • Poland – 2022

Categories

Teams/Location/Year

2006 (33) 2010 (21) 2014 (19) 2018 (22) 2022 (8) Argentina (4) Belgium (2) Bosnia and Herzegovina (1) Brazil (3) Cameroon (2) Canada (1) Chile (2) Colombia (2) Croatia (4) Denmark (2) Ecuador (2) Egypt (1) England (4) FInals (4) France (3) Germany (3) Ghana (2) Greece (2) Introduction (2) Iran (4) Italy (2) Japan (2) Media (2) Mexico (2) Morocco (2) Netherlands (2) Neutral Site (1) Nigeria (2) Poland (2) Portugal (3) Russia (2) Saudi Arabia (2) Senegal (2) Spain (2) Sweden (2) Switzerland (2) Togo (1) Ukraine (1) United States (3) Uruguay (2)

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