World Cup Trophy Visits Canada
FIFA World Cup Trophy
Although the recent FIFA World Cup Trophy visit is being touted as the “first ever” for the 18 karat gold statuette to Canada, it seems that one of the world’s most coveted sport trophy might have touched Canadian soil already. Accounts from two former national team members recall the World Cup Trophy arriving in Canada in 1994 ahead of the US hosted World Cup and another time in 1986 to honor Canada’s first ever, and to-date only, World Cup qualification.
A spokesperson for Hill & Knowlton Canada, who is handling the Canadian leg of the trophy’s tour, stated that FIFA confirmed that the statuette that touched down in Toronto this past Wednesday is “the real thing” and that it “never made it to Canada before”.
History and rumours aside, the World Cup trophy arrived to much pomp and ceremony with a barrage of fans not caring if this was the first or tenth time that the trophy has made it to Canada. The 13-pound trophy is nearing the final leg of its world-wide tour sponsored by Coca-Cola that is spanning 9 months, 86 countries and 139,000 kilometers – a tour almost rivaling an Olympic torch relay.
The trophy is making its way to South Africa, host country for this year’s World Cup, for June 11th and in time for the 32 country tournament, touted as the second biggest sporting event in the world. The trophy remained in Toronto until Friday where it was heading to Miami in continuation of the tour.
The current FIFA World Cup trophy is not the original. The original trophy, named after FIFA President, Jules Rimet, was permanently awarded to Brazil after the country’s third World Cup title in 1970. This current trophy was designed by an Italian artist and selected by FIFA to be the statuette going forward. All World Cup winners receive a replica of the current statuette when they claim the World Cup title. It is one of the world’s most exclusive sport’s titles. In the tournament’s 80-year history, only 7 countries have claimed the title – Uruguay, Italy, West Germany, Brazil, England, Argentia, and France. Canada qualified for the 1986 World Cup in Mexico which has been our only appearance at which Team Canada did not even score a goal.
The tour of the trophy comes on the heels of FIFA’s release of the world ranking list. Claiming top spot on the list for the seventh time since their inception in 1993 was Brazil who dropped Spain to #2 and ended the European reign. World Cup semifinalists Portugal moved up to #3 swapping places with the Netherlands. Italy rounded out the top-5 countries. Host continent, Africa’s highest ranked countries include Egypt (#13), Cameroon (#19), and Nigeria (#19); however, Egypt will not make a World Cup appearance this year after being beaten by #31 ranked Algeria. South Africa is ranked #90 and North Korea (#106) is the only country ranked lower than the host to be attending this year’s tournament.
Canada moved up one spot to be ranked #63. The USA is ranked #14.
