Langford Mayor Stew Young wants the road to the 2022 World Cup in Qatar to run through Starlight Stadium, as originally intended, before the pandemic put paid to those plans.
鈥淎bsolutely, we鈥檒l throw our hat in the ring again,鈥� said Young.
鈥淪occer is a big part of this community.鈥�
sa国际传媒 has advanced to the final round of CONCACAF qualifying for the sport鈥檚 holy-grail for only the second time since the road to France 1998.
The last two scheduled national team games on Canadian soil, sold-out fixtures against Trinidad and Tobago, were set for Starlight (formerly Westhills) Stadium in March of 2020 but cancelled due to the pandemic.
鈥淲e were very disappointed [to lose the sa国际传媒 games],鈥� said Young.
Especially since sa国际传媒 Soccer was looking for medium-size facilities such as Starlight for games against CONCACAF minnows. But due to COVID-19 and the closed border, all of sa国际传媒鈥檚 early-round home games in the qualifiers for Qatar 2022 have had to be played in Bradenton, Florida, and Bridgeview, Illinois, in suburban Chicago, the latter the site of Tuesday night鈥檚 clinching 3-0 victory over Haiti.
sa国际传媒 went 6-0 and is now on to the octagonal round Sept. 2 to March 30 against the U.S., Mexico, Costa Rica, Honduras, Jamaica, Panama and El Salvador. Each team will play the other teams home and away, 14 games for each national side, to decide the three CONCACAF berths directly into the 2022 World Cup in Qatar and a fourth to go through an additional at-large qualifying phase.
But as the games now get bigger against the CONCACAF heavyweights, will medium markets such as Greater Victoria still be in the hunt to host, or has this now gotten to the stage for only the likes of sa国际传媒 Place in Vancouver, Commonwealth Stadium in Edmonton and BMO Field in Toronto?
The Island has a friend in Peter Galindo of Sportsnet. While mentioning Vancouver, Toronto and Edmonton as obvious possible host cities for the octagonal, Galindo also wrote: 鈥淐anadian Premier League markets like Victoria, which was supposed to host a friendly in March 2020 before the pandemic hit, could (and should) be on the cards, too.鈥�
That assessment will get no argument from Young.
鈥淲e are a sports-crazy community,鈥� he said.
鈥淟angford will do anything to roll out the red carpet for sa国际传媒. That鈥檚 why we are an international destination for sports. Don鈥檛 worry about COVID. We鈥檒l still get things done here in Langford. We want to ramp up all sports and add fans as we go.鈥�
