Soccer vs Football

The United Kingdom and Canada have many similarities, such as sharing the same Head of State and speaking the same language but how similar are we when it comes to the world of soccer?

Football (or soccer for our Canadian readers!) is a significant part of British culture. By the early 20th century, football overtook cricket as England’s national sport, and attendance increased significantly through the 1890’s and now that football fever is coming to Canada. The English Premier League (EPL) has a large and increasing fan-base in Canada. In 2018-19, the EPL had an 11% audience increase worldwide!

Since the Spring of 2019, the Canadian Premier League (CPL) was born with 7 teams stretching across Canada from the East to West coast. The Canadian Premier League is taking off with people supporting their local Canadian teams and their EPL teams in the UK. The UK and Canada share a passion for a sport and it continues to grow in Canada with season tickets already on sale for the 2020 CPL season.

In this 55 Parallels video, we had a chance to sit down with the British-Canadian contingent of Cavalry FC; Nathan Mavila, Jordan Antonio Brown, and coach Tommy Wheeldon to chat about the British and Canadian approach to the beautiful game. Learn what it’s like to play in the snow versus the rain and how these Brits are enjoying their time here in Canada.