The Interview: Top Canadian Broadcaster Kristian Jack
A Great Discussion About Where Soccer is North of the Border These Days
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There’s a lot to talk about in Canadian soccer these days. The Canadian women’s team just won the Olympic gold medal, and the Canadian men might get back to the World Cup for the first time since 1986. Canadian players like Christine Sinclair, Alphonso Davies and Jonathan David are globally recognized talents. MLS has three Canadian teams, and the Canadian Premier League is off to a promising start. Plus Canada will be a co-host with the U.S. and Mexico of World Cup 2026.
Nobody is better talking about all those things than Kristian Jack, Canada’s top soccer broadcasting voice, whom I really enjoyed speaking to this week. I think you’ll enjoy it too.
Grant:
Our guest now is one of the leading voices on soccer in Canada. Kristian Jack has spent two decades in Canadian sports television. He's currently broadcasting for One Soccer and is the vice president of content and media for the Canadian Premier League. Kristian, it's great to see you. Thanks for coming on the show.
Kristian Jack:
Grant, always a pleasure to sit down and talk soccer with you and thanks so much for the invite. This is an absolute pleasure for me.
Grant:
Yeah, I've been looking forward to this one, and part of the reason is I want to talk about your career, but I also want to talk about just the excitement around soccer in Canada right now. Because when you look at the Canadian national teams, the women are the Olympic champions. The men have a genuine chance to qualify for their first World Cup since 1986, and obviously just got a tie against the United States in Nashville. What's happening to cause this excitement and this growth in soccer in Canada?
Kristian Jack:
Yeah. I mean, you're right to mention it right away, Grant. It's a tremendous time up here for us and I think we've all been... I certainly have lived in this wonderful country for 20 years and we've been all waiting for moments like this for a long time. But it's only we can talk about how domestic leagues are taking off and we're going to get into the conversation about the MLS clubs and what's that really done for the rise of the popularity of the sport in this country later.
“Olympic coverage was tremendous here on CBC, our national broadcaster in Canada. But nothing, and I mean not Andre De Grasse going for a gold in the 100 meter men's, nothing got a better rating than the women winning [the gold medal].” — Kristian Jack
But I think as you guys know in the States, that national team carries so much weight. You've got to perform on the national team level. And the women have been close in the past with their Olympic bronzes in 2012 and 2016, and they just went above and beyond this year. And it really was just a monumental moment for this sport in this country. They have really galvanized young girls in this country a lot more than the men have in terms of ... you mentioned the rivalry with the U.S. there in the men's side, but that Old Trafford game in the London Olympics, the Christine Sinclair game with the hat trick and the 4-3 and the late drama and the referee decisions, that's still talked about here forever.
And I love that. Okay, Canada was on the wrong end of that one at that time, but it's those moments that stick with people for a long time. And that's obviously translated the story where young girls have become young teenagers, and then they watched these women go out there and get the gold. And Olympic coverage was tremendous here on CBC, our national broadcaster in Canada. But nothing, and I mean not Andre De Grasse going for a gold in the 100 meter men's, nothing got a better rating than the women winning that. So that's great.
And as you mentioned, the men right now are really in the conversation now where casual sports fans are asking me and others, "Can we make this World Cup?" So it's been a tremendous time. How they got here, well, there's lots of layers to that, but the players that they've managed to produce and the level that they're playing at has certainly been an enormous part of their success.
‘The belief is there now. And I think talking to the [Canadian men’s] players, Grant, there's that special thing in sports where once you've got that mentality switch where you think you can win, that is a tremendous amount of fuel compared to hoping you can win. And I think that switch has come on, and there's a real belief now internally that this group can make it [to Qatar 2022].” — Kristian Jack
Grant:
Do you think the Canadian men can qualify? Do you think they will qualify for Qatar ‘22?
Kristian Jack:
I think they will, actually. Yeah, I do. And I've done a bit of a quick transformation on this because I broadcast all their games on One Soccer Mediapro and now on Sportsnet up here, we've done all their games, the national games, for a long time. So we've been really on this journey. And unlike the United States, Canada have been playing World Cup qualifiers for some time, they had to go through the different preliminary routes. And you probably remember this, but there was a time where they actually looked like they were not going to get in. There was that time where they said, "Here’s the six, you've not made it with the world rankings. You're done, and you're not going to get there." So this has almost been playing with house money since they've changed the rule to the Octagon with the eight.
And ever since then, I really think there's been a belief in the players that they can go out there and do this, and they had to come through Suriname and Aruba and then Haiti, and now they're in this. I think that the Gold Cup in particular, when they didn't have Alphonso Davies and they didn't have Jonathan David and Atiba Hutchinson, three of their best players, yet they went toe to toe with the U.S., obviously losing that 1-0 goal in the 20 seconds into the game, but went toe to toe with them, beat Costa Rica quite handily, and then took Mexico to the 99th minute. Heartbreaking goal. That they went, "We can play with the CONCACAF giants here."
So the belief is there now. And I think talking to the players, Grant, there's that special thing in sports where once you've got that mentality switch where you think you can win, that is a tremendous amount of fuel compared to hoping you can win. And I think that switch has come on and there's a real belief now internally that this group can make it, which is remarkable how quickly that's transformed.
“[Canada women’s coach Bev Priestman] has an incredibly intelligent football mind … She's brave. She's very brave at making big tactical decisions, and I think that's what this group needed that perhaps didn't have that under the last manager.” — Kristian Jack
Grant:
I do want to ask you in particular about the two Canadian national team coaches at senior level, because I find both of them to be very intriguing. Let's start with John Herdman, because we were just talking about the men's side. Obviously he used to coach the women's team in Canada. That's how I got to become familiar with him and his work. He seems like a very charismatic figure, but I'm wondering from your perspective, as someone who has covered him a lot over the years and I presume gotten to know him pretty well, what is it about John Herdman that stands out to you the most?
Kristian Jack:
He's a tremendous motivator, first of all, and he's an incredible planner as well. So he is suited to the international game. There's been a lot of discussions about would he go to MLS? I'm not saying he couldn't do it, but he's openly said that it's a completely different skillset. He can sit there and plan his spreadsheets out and figure out what he's playing in the training sessions around them. And I also think this, above all things in any sport, I think the level of international management compared to club management is just so different. You're getting players in at a very short window and what you can do quickly with them is really something completely different than what you would have on a daily basis at a club level.
So what he has done really well is he's got them believing in this purpose together collectively. What he has inherited, and he's openly said this himself, is a tremendous young group of players, and that has helped him. It's also a group of players that are bonded together by their own upbringing. Even though Canada is so diverse, even though Jonathan David's got different connections to different countries and was born in Brooklyn, and Alfonso with his refugee camp. What many of these stories are, are stories of perseverance, of young Canadians who were once told, "You're not going to make it." And now here they are all together, making it together.
And so I think what he's really done is he's really embraced that challenge of working with these young players and then just motivating them. And he's done a great job of that. And he'll unite a group together really well. And I think what John also does well is, he understands when he needs to be the one who's in the spotlight and take the pressure off them. And then ultimately sometimes allow the players to take that. And I think he does a good job of that, much like he did with the women when we all covered them during the 2015 World Cup here in Canada.
“The good cop [in Montreal] was Wilfried Nancy throughout that whole thing, he was the one just slowing things down in the background, having a quick word with players, not undermining Thierry [Henry]. So when he was hired, I think the players all went, ‘Oh, okay. Now I can go express myself, understand that this guy knows I've got limitations.’ And they flourished.” — Kristian Jack
Grant:
Bev Priestman is someone who hasn't been in the public eye as long as John Herdman has, but suddenly she's the coach of the Olympic champions in a sport that has fewer and fewer women coaching the top women's national teams and club teams all the time.
Kristian Jack:
Great point.
Grant:
And so what she's done this year is so impressive. What should we know about Bev Priestman?
Kristian Jack:
Well, Bev's obviously a little bit of a disciple of John, because she worked with John. In fact, when you talk to them, I actually laugh, Grant, sometimes because being from England myself originally, it's almost like speaking to two people from the same place. I know they're not, but they're both from the northeast, they've both got that very similar twang and accent and they both use the same kind of dialogue and football framing and analysis. So it's like, "Whoa." It really is. I know it's two different people, but sometimes it's like they're cut from the same cloth. And I think that's a good cloth. I want to make that point.
She has an incredibly intelligent football mind. When I watch what they've done, and again, this is a special group of players. She's transitioned really well here from I think making big calls. Christine Sinclair obviously speaks for herself, the amount of success that she's had, but isn't making an impact on the squad from whistle one to whistle 90 anywhere near as much as she once did. That's just life. That's just aging. That's just sports. That's just a progress of life. And I think she completely understands that, and she's allowed other people to take over those tactical leaderships. Sophie Schmidt's another one, a massive part of that, and then she had to make initially the call where she said, "You've not made my squad." Now, eventually the rules were changed where they could take more players, and thankfully 18 was always too short and she able to get there and get a medal that she deserved. But she's brave. She's very brave at making big tactical decisions and I think that's what this group needed that perhaps didn't have that under the last manager.
“First thing is [Toronto FC] need to get a new coach. They need a leader and they need a tempo setter. They need somebody who's not going to let the inmates run the asylum, who’s going to have the rules in place. And I think they need a big personality.” — Kristian Jack
Grant:
I’m very curious to see if the Canadian women can have World Cup success because it's kind of strange. They’ve been a lot more successful at the Olympics, actually the last three Olympics, than at the World Cup itself. And I don't know why that is necessarily, if that's a psychological thing, the U.S. team is sort of the opposite. The U.S. seems to win every World Cup now, but then they don't do as well during the Olympics. So I guess I'm curious now to see if the Canadian women can keep it going as we head toward 2023 in Australia-New Zealand.
I do want to switch a little bit here to the MLS teams in Canada. There's three of them, obviously. One of them, Montreal, is exceeding expectations and the other two, Toronto and Vancouver, are not. And I'm wondering what is your sense of these things?
Kristian Jack:
Yeah, I think, I mean, for me first of all, let's start with the positive. I think Montreal have done a tremendous job this season. I always thought that the addition of Djordje Mihailovic was an outstanding astute move to get a young player like that. And I know it raised eyebrows, the amount of allocation money they spent to get it. But when they lost Ignacio Piatti, they really lost a leader on and off the pitch, a guy who wants the ball, and Montreal have always been, even under Thierry Henry, very well organized, very well drilled, defensively in a solid shape. And Henry really worked that, but they didn't have that sprinkle dust. They didn't have that magician that they lost with Piatti, and I thought, "Okay, Mihailovic that's a big signing." And I thought, "Can he go on and do that?" And he's done it and he's embraced it.
I think every credit for Wilfried Nancy who's come in and, I think he would openly say this, Grant, when I interviewed him at the start, was classed as almost like a caretaker. It's like, "We lost Thierry quickly. Okay, well he knows the players, the players love him." And again, Thierry was cut from a different cloth than him very much so. Thierry was demanding, intense, very, very impatient with these players. And some players embraced that. Some, it really took them a different way when you're that intense into making players better.
And of course with Thierry it's almost like, "Why can't you do things?" Because naturally they would come to him, and I talked to him about that, he was aware that he had to be a little bit less. But the good cop, bad cop situation, the good cop was Wilfried Nancy throughout that whole thing, he was the one just slowing things down in the background, having a quick word with players, not undermining Thierry. So when he was hired, I think the players all went, "Oh, okay. Now I can go express myself, understand that this guy knows I've got limitations." And they flourished, and every credit.
And the other two teams, look, the [Vancouver] Whitecaps have gone through very difficult times here, really over the last couple of seasons. It's not been easy for any of these Canadian teams, it has to be stressed, Grant, playing away from home, not playing in Canada. And the Whitecaps really suffered. They were longer away than anybody else. They've got a smart, astute backroom staff now that I think took them a long time to understand they needed to help the coaches. For me, even under Carl Robinson, their greatest time when they made the playoffs three out of four years, they didn't have a lot of help behind the scenes and he was kind of doing everything. So I think that that will increase.
And I think for me, it's still a hotbed of football. People love the Whitecaps. It's a wonderful place to go. Vancouver, what a city. It's a lot of things to sell. And if they were just to expand their financial coffers a little bit, I think they could get a bit more of a quality player in there and they could start to do things, but they still miss that difference-maker even though Ryan Gauld's been great.
And as for TFC, boy or boy, where do we start there? It's just been misery compounded upon misery all season long. It's a team that has, I think, evaluated their own talent inaccurately for too long. And what did the great Sir Alex Ferguson always say, "You must evaluate your own talent better than anybody else." And obviously Greg Vanney saw a bit of the writing on the wall and the team got older. They didn't have a lot of a financial cap to change it. Then they've made bad decisions and bad signings. And this is the result.
“I've got scouts, I've got general managers and coaches in MLS asking me about a couple players here and there [in the Canadian Premier League] and I like that. I'm not saying that we could send 30 players right now from our league and play regularly in MLS, but I would say that we could probably send 10 or 15.” — Kristian Jack
Grant:
It's pretty incredible actually. And I see reports that maybe Sebastian Giovinco might be coming back. Is there anything to that? And where do you see Toronto going from here?
Kristian Jack:
Well, I mean, I think there needs to be an enormous amount of changes. [Team president] Bill Manning is a very proud individual who doesn't accept failure, who does? But he certainly doesn't. He is the first one to say, "This is not going to happen." And what people need to understand listening to this is that this club was drowning in failure for the longest time. You know Tim Leiweke, he came and he changed that mentality.
And he still doesn't get talked about enough in this city for me, and [Tim] Bezbatchenko came and Vanney came, but Leiweke made people believe, "Why can't it be us? Why can't we be good?" He looked at Toronto, world class city, MLSE ownership with an unbelievable amount of financial power, spending more money than most. "Why can't we change the narrative here?" And they did. And they got big stars and Giovinco was one of them and they made additions. And they got smart people in MLS, like Drew Moor and Steven Beitashour and others, to build around that and have a core piece, and really had tremendous leaders all the way through.
Now, they really lack that I think, and they've got a bit older. First thing is they need to get a new coach. They need a leader and they need a tempo setter. They need somebody who's not going to let the inmates run the asylum, who’s going to have the rules in place. And I think they need a big personality. And I think they're going to go out there and have to get that first and then the rest of it comes after that. They're going to make big decisions, they've got an enormous decision to make over key players like Jozy Altidore, [Alejandro] Pozuelo going into his final year. All enormous decisions that they have to get right this time, Grant, because it's been a terrible year, but if they don't get it right again, then it could get even worse, and it's hard to say that, but where they are on the standings, but they've got to turn this around pretty quickly.
“I never pretended I played. That was very important for me, Grant, to be authentic. I can bring tactical things to it because I speak to coaches. I've spent a tremendous amount of time talking to players and coaches and trying to bring insight and information to people.” — Kristian Jack
Grant:
Yeah. It's pretty incredible when you look at the standings and see them so far at the bottom. You're working with the Canadian Premier League now, and we’ve had a couple of guests over time talking about the CPL, but what is your role with the league and how are you seeing its growth and what it wants to be?
Kristian Jack:
Yeah, it's just our third year as the Canadian Premier League, so I've kind of come in right at the start kind of initially. The first year obviously was a full season and then second year with the pandemic, many leagues didn't happen here. The Canadian Football League didn't happen here. So credit the league, they had a tournament in The Island Games on Prince Edward Island. And they had a year where they could crown a champion, which I think was really important, and players stuck around. So we've had a third season and now, it's a full season. We've started off in a bubble in Winnipeg, and now everybody's in their own different markets and we're playing a full year of 28 games and a playoffs to come in November.
So my role is really I'm in charge and VP of content and media, the league. And then I also broadcast a lot of the games on One Soccer. Mediapro is rights holders here for the league. So basically running the team there and directing things and storylines around it. And it's exciting, mate. It's really quite fresh. It's quite charming in the way that we have access. I can just pick up a phone and talk to any player and the player's very open to talk about it.
I also like the fact that they're not hiding behind the fact that they are a development league in terms of we want our stars to go elsewhere. I know I've got scouts, I've got general managers and coaches in MLS asking me about a couple players here and there and I like that. I'm not saying that we could send 30 players right now from our league and play regularly in MLS, but I would say that we could probably send 10 or 15. I think there's, like any league, you’ve got to give these players an opportunity.
We're a very Canadian league with limitations for overseas players to come in, but it's been good. The quality has surprised me, it's got better. And I think we're only going to improve as the years go on, and the fans are embracing it. This is a country that is obviously a massive country and understands their geographical area. If you're in Halifax, Nova Scotia, you need people to represent you. You want to love the game of soccer. You can watch Tajon Buchanan and Alphonso Davies and Christine Sinclair represent the Maple Leaf in the big moments, but they can go down to their local stadium and pack 6,000 in there and it can feel like an enormous occasion because that crest represents you. And we need more of that here across this great country.
Grant:
What is the Canadian Premier League, from your perspective, aspiring to be down the road? I mean, is there at some point a hope to compete with MLS or what sort of a relationship dynamic do you eventually see happening with the Canadian Premier League and MLS?
Kristian Jack:
Yeah, it's a really good point. A good question. I think for me, Major League Soccer has done so many great things. We know how in the ‘90s and, you know this better than anybody, how different Major League Soccer was in the ‘90s to now in 2021. The only thing that really is the same is the name. It's a completely different sport, completely different look, the way it's broadcast, the way it smells, the way it feels, the cities it goes to.
And here we are in the Canadian Premier League in year three, and I think if we can make the amount of strides that Major League Soccer has made in 20 years, then I would say what a success that would be. I think that would be above and beyond expectations. So I think that for the league expansion will continue. We want obviously to go in different cities, Saskatchewan has already got an expansion team that we hope to see in the next couple of seasons.
And as for MLS, I think MLS and the financial disparity that it has over the Canadian Premier League, between me and you, I think will probably always be there. And I think that's okay. I think that every league around the world will tell you that there's this pyramid. If you want to be in the Premier League, you understand that the championship in England, sometimes you want to get there, there's nothing wrong with that. And I think we can all play that role together. And as I said, right now the great thing already in the Canadian Premier League is that we are not being told you can't boost this player up because he might get sold to an MLS team. That's what we want. That's what the players want. We're all in it together. And I think we can help that process going forward, and improve the game in the country and on the continent.
“With BMO Field [for World Cup 2026] there's structures there that can be moved on and built and made bigger and used later. Edmonton, you've already got an enormous stadium with Commonwealth that is fit to serve that amount of people. So as of right now, I think it's probably just looking like the two, but we'll see.” — Kristian Jack
Grant:
We’ve been talking, and there's so much to talk about with Canadian soccer, but you're an expert on soccer around the world, not just in Canada. I'm just curious to know how do you divide your time to be on top of everything that's happening in Canada and in MLS, but then also what's happening in Europe?
Kristian Jack:
I have a very understanding family. That certainly helps. I have a son who loves the game, who'll help watching the game with me as well. You're right. I mean, it has been up until now taking this job like I was doing Premier League shows on Sirius. It's been put on hold for now, because obviously I’m doing this job. And obviously you know my role at TSN where we did UEFA Champions League, Europa League, MLS, Premier League, World Cups, Euros. It was very busy. I know we're just taping an audio here, but you can see my notebooks behind me for every league that I work on. And it was tough, man, I'll be honest.
I know you did unbelievable work at SI and I've been very complimentary of that. And you've been always a big fan of mine at TSN and both of us have been on different roads right now. The TSN road has kind of changed for me and now I'm taken out of it, I look back and think, "How did I get it done?" Sometimes it was difficult. Luke and I, and Stevie, we would always joke about doing an MLS game right after doing a Premier League game that morning when we'd just done a Europa League and Champions League week.
It was a lot, mate. It was a lot and it was consuming and it takes over your life a little bit, but as I've stepped away from it, I'm really embracing the next opportunity that is Canadian soccer and within MLS and obviously MLS teams play Canadian Premier League teams this week in the Canadian Championship so it's all streaming in the same direction, but I just love the sport and to talk about it with a man of your credibility, as I said earlier, an honor and a pleasure.
Grant:
Thank you. I'm really enjoying this. And I do want to take a step back if possible and ask you, what's your story in this business and how did you end up emigrating from England to Canada two decades ago?
Kristian Jack:
Yeah, so I've always had a bit of an obsession with North America, and I could say North America now, because I'm in Canada, but I'll be honest as a kid it was just America. It was the United States. I loved it. I'm a big sports fan. So all your big sports, I'm an enormous fan of them. Hockey now more than ever because I'm in Canada and my son's a big NHL fan, but a big MLB fan. I spent a lot of time in Atlanta in the mid ‘90s interning at CNN International Sport actually.
So that kind of got my love for television. I always knew from a very young age that I wanted to be a storyteller, Grant. I love writing. English was something that I loved to do. And then I pretty much realized pretty quickly that I wasn't going to be good enough to play professional sports. So how do you find a way of staying in the professional sport era? Let's try and be a storyteller.
So I love to write. I graduated from university in the UK and then was told, "You probably have to do three years in news as a reporter before you can get any kind of sports job." Thankfully I made that move in 14 months, and I'm thankful that it did because working in news for 14 months almost killed my love for the journalism, because it was just very depressing. I like sports because it's safe.
And obviously we hit big stories when we need to, but battling over a midfield diamond or a back three is a lot better than talking about real-life stuff. So that was my story. I graduated from the University of Central Lancashire in journalism and then was a newspaper writer then covering sports in the UK, lots of sports but particularly football, Preston North End and David Moyes when he was there and David Beckham on loan there and lots of different things.
And then decided as a family, because we spent a lot of time over here, my parents and my brother emigrated to Canada and we all decided to give it up. And so we did that. It's a big decision. And I look back at it as being one that was tough, no doubt about it, but the right decision. And then when I came over here, newspapers were very different. Couldn't really get in. And I got an internship at the Score Television Network, which for those who don't know in the United States was the third sports channel behind the two empires, TSN run by Bell, Sportsnet run by Rogers.
We did things a little bit differently, but a lot of people graduated from the Score. People like Tim Micallef, Sid Sexeiro, Cabbie Richards. There's so many great people, Adnan Virk, a lot of great friends of mine for a long time. We all worked together at the Score for 10 years. And then I did some things behind the scenes there. And then we got a lot of soccer coverage. We had World Cup coverage for 2010 and Premier League and we started producing different things. We had a show called the Footy Show. And then when Sportsnet bought the Score, long story short, TSN took me over there and did their coverage. So I always say broadcasting fell into me rather than the journalism thing. But yeah, I love it. It's great.
Grant:
I wonder because I feel you're such a TV and radio voice to me now and yet your background is in writing and news in journalism. It's just really interesting to me that that's not an easy transition for a lot of people to make. Not many people make that transition. And it also strikes me that, like me, you didn't play the game at a high professional level or coach the game. And you're one of the most trusted voices on this sport in North America in terms of what's happening in a game and breaking a game down and all of that, how did you get to that point? How did you acquire that ability and respect?
Kristian Jack:
No, I thank you for that. It's a really good question. And it's one that I've often wrestled with myself because I've hosted national shows on TSN, but most of the time I was always placed in the analyst chair next to a player. And I do think there's a place for that in sports. As I said earlier, I'm a big baseball fan. I love to listen to Tom Verducci breakdown major league baseball games, obviously writes for SI, one of the greatest guys in the world. We've got Bob McKenzie up here who worked for us at TSN, who was the trusted voice on the NHL. As I said, I think there's a real voice for it.
I never pretended I played. That was very important for me, Grant, to be authentic. I can bring tactical things to it because I speak to coaches. I've spent a tremendous amount of time talking to players and coaches and trying to bring insight and information to people that I know when they turn us on in an afternoon or in a morning, or at night, they've worked all day and they haven't had the fortune or the pleasure to figure out what's going on and turn this to know and they just want to hear us entertain and inform. That's all it is. Just entertain us and inform us. So I never lost that. That's why I spend, I'm talking to you in my office, spend hours upon hours talking to people to try and improve my own brain and my own knowledge of the sport to do it.
So like I said, talking to players, sitting next to players, working with great ex-players and bringing them on has been a real pleasure for me. They will come to me and ask for me to help them with broadcasting and I will talk to them about things. Working with great people like Janusz Michallik at Sirius and Steven Caldwell at TSN and many other people has been, as I said, it's just been an absolute pleasure and we bounce off each other.
And as I said, just continue to watch as young people will always say to me, "What can I do to improve my knowledge of the game?" And I will say, "Put your phone down. Don't tweet during games. Watch matches closely, make your own observations, and then listen to other people that you might respect, but there's nothing wrong with your own analysis if you do the work because people don't have to agree with you, but if you do the work, they'll respect it."
Grant:
I love the idea, put your phone down during the game. That's a good one. It's a pretty basic one.
Kristian Jack:
It's not easy for people though, mate. It's not easy for people. They get infiltrated. We've all done it. I'll never forget a moment. I was doing a Europa League game once and Europa League games, they're a bit more relaxed than the Champions League Tuesday-Wednesday triple headers. We're doing a Europa League game once, I'll never forget, Liverpool were playing in the Europa League.
And I tweeted something during the first half about why's Philippe Coutinho not doing anything good? And then he scored an absolute worldie. And it's five minutes after I tweeted something. And I'm like, "I'm never doing that again." Everybody's on you. Suddenly it's like, "What am I doing that for?" So I've learned my lesson harshly. We all learn our lessons. If you learn from them, then you're doing a good thing. If you keep doing the same thing, then I don't know what else to tell you.
Grant:
That's great. So you alluded to this earlier. I'll be straight. We were all stunned when Bell gutted its soccer staff earlier this year. To me, you're the best at what you do in Canada and they let you go too. And we've seen them be criticized pretty publicly, including by CONCACAF president Victor Montagliani about what they've done with the sport of soccer. I know you're very close to this, but what happened there? And I was really impressed with how gracious you were in handling that situation because it's not easy.
Kristian Jack:
Yeah, it was a difficult time, Grant. There's no question about it because it was a bit of a surprise. I mean, the industry is obviously always moving on and I'd lost friends during that time and when I got the email saying, "You got to show up for this meeting on a phone call." You're like, "Okay, here we go. This is it." But I've got faith, I've got faith in the Lord and my family and we had a strong path to move forward and never really believed that it was the wrong thing for us. It was a difficult time for us, no question about it, but one that I think was an opportunity for us to think about what could be next. We were told it was for COVID reasons. We'd had a very busy 2020 season. We were the only broadcasters in the world to broadcast every game of MLS Is Back tournament and we were proud of that. And again, we owned that tournament and it was never a Canadian-centric thing.
I always challenged our team to know as much about Nashville as you would about the Whitecaps, for example, and push that team. In the end, I look back at it with immense pride about what we were able to accomplish. You know what it's like. We're seen as individuals, but we're team members, mate. We've got so many people we work with in this business and we work behind the scenes with people to put forward.
People would see us on the front line of doing World Cups and live games and everything, but to work behind the scenes with these people and push them and make sure they get spelling mistakes right, and graphics right, and formations right, and throw to the right clip and ask the right questions. Yeah. It was fun. I enjoyed every second of it and I thank Bell and TSN for the opportunity, for the gamble that they took on me. And look, I wish them nothing but the best going forward.
Grant:
Yeah. And obviously you're back working and doing your thing, so it's great to see that and the response to it in a very changing media landscape everywhere for everyone. I want to switch gears a little bit in looking forward to World Cup 2026, and obviously Canada is co-hosting that World Cup with the United States and Mexico. And I'm wondering, how much does that get talked about right now up in Canada? Is there much of a vibe around it? Is there excitement? What are you seeing?
Kristian Jack:
I don't think there's enough excitement. I'll talk to anybody about it anytime because I'm so excited about it. I don't think it's crossed that landscape to the casual sports fan yet. I do hope and I think that the Canadian Soccer Association and those in charge of making the right decisions and I'm pretty sure it's not on a pile on their desk. It's being read every day. They're dealing with this. I mean, I know right now CONCACAF's going through the selection process for where these games are going to be taking place. Toronto and Bill Manning again have been an enormous part of this in terms of what they're going to do to BMO Field.
But I think it's an enormous opportunity for this country. And I don't think people understand how big of an opportunity it is. This cannot be for me, Grant, giving us 10 games or whatever the amount of final games they allude to and having teams fly in, drop into the stadium, play and fly out and say, "Thanks for coming." And just as if it will be played anywhere. It's got to be places where people come in and have training facilities and pitches, that home headquarters can be based there if they're playing their games in those cities. That is an enormous part of developing the culture of the sport in this country. An enormous part of what the tournament's about.
I grew up in a city in England, Preston, and we had Euro ‘96 and the Czech Republic, they were based in our city in 1996. They were based in the Marriott in Preston in 1996 randomly, just because it was a wonderful area for them to be based. And those who know the sport will know the Czechs got all the way to the final and almost beat the Germans. And that was our city's team. They were walking around, handing out things, stickers, and people, kids were getting autographs and shirts.
My brother worked there and got [Karel] Poborský's shirt. That is what I want for this country. I don't care who it is. I don't care what country it is. Whether it's the Germans or whether it's Burkina Faso. It doesn't matter to me. It needs to be a country that is embraced coming to this wonderful country, seeing it and staying here, and playing the games here and then thanking Canada and having the memories for Canada.
I know the United States will quite rightly dominate with the amount of games they've got and they'll do a brilliant job in the stadiums and the storytelling, and you'll be at the forefront and they'll do amazing, but we need to play a part in this storytelling as well. It cannot just simply be, as I said earlier, dropping in teams and letting them go after the match.
Grant:
So we're talking on Tuesday, as of right now, as I understand it, Toronto and Edmonton are the two cities on board to host games in Canada for World Cup ‘26, Montreal and Vancouver are currently not.
Kristian Jack:
That's right.
Grant:
Is there any chance that one of those two cities gets back in it?
Kristian Jack:
I would say probably unlikely, never say never with Vancouver. I know things have been moving around. Montreal pulled out. They were initially in the process and then they've decided that they pulled out. Being in Montreal a lot, going to that stadium and understanding the fabric of that and what they're trying to do right now and there's still talk about the Expos returning in certain capacities as well.
I just never imagined a World Cup being played at that stadium. I just can't see it. There's a lot of work that needs to be done there, and a lot of money put in, and are they willing to do that without a grand plan of what else is to come? It is not a facility that's used a lot. The Impact play next door in Stade Saputo, that is a perfect size for them. So with BMO Field there's structures there that can be moved on and built and made bigger and used later. Edmonton, you've already got an enormous stadium with Commonwealth that is fit to serve that amount of people. So as of right now, I think it's probably just looking like the two, but we'll see.
Grant:
We're winding down here with Kristian Jack, really appreciate you taking this much time. The U.S. men's national team visits Canada for a men's World Cup qualifier in January. What's the atmosphere going to be like for that besides really, really cold?
Kristian Jack:
Well, I think you might be warm because if it's in January, I'm pretty sure you'll be inside.
Grant:
Good.
Kristian Jack:
I don't have any insight to this, but I'm pretty sure you'll be at BC Place in Vancouver, mate. I'm just going to throw that out there right now. So I think if you're going to play games in January, that's where I would imagine them to be. And even maybe in March as well, because it can be pretty cold here as well. I think, look, it's going to be so exciting. This U.S.-Canada rivalry is real. I actually find myself sometimes in the middle of it. My wife is originally from the States. She's a proud Canadian as well, but I already talked about how much I just love your country and how much I love the people there, but for whatever reason, some Canadians don't. It's that rivalry there that really gets them going, so they love to play the U.S. I know the players love to play the U.S., and they're up for it. And now they feel like they belong.
I was there at BMO in 2019, Michael Bradley's last cap for the United States, when the United States lost that night to Canada, that was really the igniter for this momentum that started now. That was the night, and I know weeks later I was back in Orlando and they got thrashed that night by the States, but that was the igniter in the Nations League where they were like, "We can beat these teams." And then they went, obviously played in the Gold Cup and lost the goal after 20 seconds, but had a lot of the ball that day, and then 1-1, they drew in Nashville.
I don't think any of us are really truly ready to know what this is going to be like as quickly as January and March, because it's such a unique process, this World Cup qualifying, how fast it's come. Here we are right now already, games are coming thick and fast. Another window coming up in October, and I don't know about you, but I love it.
Sometimes I think international football can be a little bit stale, too long, let's get games going, and I know the managers love getting these players in for these three-game windows as well, like club teams and boost that environment. So it's going to be immense, mate. I can't wait to see you there. It's going to be fun. We're going to hopefully be able to write the fact that both our teams are going to make it to Qatar.
Grant:
Fantastic. Kristian Jack has spent two decades in Canadian sports television. He's currently broadcasting for One Soccer and he's the vice president of content and media for the Canadian Premier League. Kristian, thanks so much for coming on the show.
Kristian Jack:
Grant, thanks for having me. As I said earlier, an immense pleasure of mine, and an enormous fan of yours. Keep up the great work, and we’ll chat soon.
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