By: Farida Rady and Jacob Roberts
Originally published on Progressive City
This case study examines Toronto’s FIFA Fan Festival and the broader preparations for the 2026 World Cup as a lens through which to understand the neoliberalization and enclosure of urban space. It considers how an idealized and carefully curated image of Toronto is projected globally; one that is saturated with hollow invocations of diversity, inclusion, and unity. These celebratory discourses, while central to the city’s self-branding, work to obscure the uneven production of urban space and the material practices of displacement and restriction that accompany mega-event planning. In doing so, they complicate Toronto’s claim to be a welcoming and globally inclusive city.
Situating this analysis within Progressive City’s “Keeping the ‘Public’ in Public Space” series, the piece foregrounds how public space is governed, restricted, and increasingly enclosed in the lead-up to FIFA 2026. It draws attention to the planning policies, design interventions, and informal practices that regulate access to urban space – often along lines of race, class, gender, disability, and national origin – while situating these dynamics within the wider political economy of city branding and inter-urban competition.
Read more: https://progressivecity.net/torontos-fifa-dreams-whose-city-whose-world-cup/