FourFourTwo: Toronto

[alexintoronto]

Canadians love their hockey, they love their beer, they love their universal healthcare and a large number of them love their football.
Walk down any street in Canada's biggest city on a weekend and you're bound to see a football 'jersey' or two. Sure, you'll see the biggies: Chelsea, Liverpool, Manchester United, A.C. Milan, Real Madrid, Celtic and so on. But you'll also see more exotic outfits: St. Pauli, Panathinaikos, Queens Park Rangers.
If there isn't snow on the ground (usually the months outside of November-February) and the temperature is above zero, then you will likely find games of pick-up football happening in the two large downtown parks, Trinity Bellwoods Park and High Park. If you join a game, you might want to keep your eye out for flying baseballs, Frisbees and dogs using your bag as a fire hydrant, but the typically friendly Torontonians love to meet new people, and if you have a wacky British accent then they will assume you're decent with a ball at your feet. So, no pressure.


The history of football in Toronto has always been drawn along ethnic lines. From the early days of the late 19th century, when battles were fought over whether to adopt a Canadian set of rules allowing for more violent play or stick with the more civil British rules, to the early 1950s when an influx of post-war immigrants radically changed the face of the sport in Canada, people in Toronto have always been passionate about football.


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