Meet the other World Cup hosts: James Johnson on why Canada will be the tournament's legacy story; Club América's COO on Mexico's lively sports market

0:04David Cushnan:Hello and welcome to Worth Knowing, the sports industry podcast from Leaders, where we talk to the people worth knowing in the business of sport this week. My name is David Cushnan. I'm the content director here at Leaders. And on the show today, a couple more conversations recorded at the Business of Soccer, our event at the end of March in Atlanta, where the great and the good of the football industry from around the world and inside North America joined us. Perhaps inevitably the focus of many of the discussions on and off stage in Atlanta at the Mercedes-Benz Stadium focused on the USA, the senior host, if you like, of this upcoming World Cup.

0:47David Cushnan:78 of the 104 games will be played across 11 stadiums in the US. But I was keen to dig in a little bit more to the other co-hosts of the tournament for whom hosting World Cup games is hugely significant and potentially a catalyst for the further development of football in the countries. Mexico has the opening game of the tournament at the Azteca Stadium in Mexico City. Monterey and Guadalajara are hosting games in the country too during the tournament. I sat down in Atlanta with Hector Gonzalez Inarritu. Hector is the COO and effectively the president of business operations at Club America, one of Mexico's most famous and successful teams.

1:31David Cushnan:More titles than any other in Liga MX. The joint record holder with seven CONCACAF Champions Cup Champions League titles. They play their home games at the Azteca Stadium, which is undergoing a mega refurbishment for the World Cup. And Hector is really good at explaining not just what is happening at Club America, but also the hopes and the ambitions for being a co-host of the FIFA World Cup this year and what it might do for football in Mexico. Canada has games as well. Vancouver and Toronto are the chosen host cities there. and they do so at a period where new leadership is in place within the sport in the country.

2:15David Cushnan:Notably, James Johnson, who last year swapped his CEO role at Football Australia to come in to run the commercial arm of soccer in Canada. He was swiftly involved in renaming as Canada Soccer Media and Entertainment. Really interesting business, really strong aims. They're already acquiring media rights to certain other properties in football as well, which is an interesting development that James goes into when I spoke to him on the sidelines of the business of soccer in Atlanta. Hector and James predictably excited that the tournament is coming to their parts of the world. High hopes, as I say, about what it might do for football slash soccer in both countries.

2:56David Cushnan:So a couple of really interesting conversations, hopefully, that you will enjoy from the two other co-hosts of this year's World Cup. James Johnson from Canada Soccer Media and Entertainment soon. But first of all, here is Hector Gonzalez Inaritu, COO, President of Business Operations at Club America. Hector Gonzalez Inaritu, COO, President of Operations, President of Business at Club America. Thanks for being with us here at Business of Soccer. We've just stepped off stage. How was the session for you? Very good. It's amazing. A lot of people and always Club America want to share the hot kind of job we are doing.

3:37We are a very good team. We have the operations, the sports topics, the fan topics, and all the projects for growth. The main project right now is here in the United States. And as I told you, we have many people working for the promotion penetration with the Mexican fans and the Hispanic fans in the United States.

4:00David Cushnan:Tell us a little bit for those who don't know about the size of Club America and the importance of Club America within Mexico City, but in within Mexico. How many people do you have working there? Fan base? What does it all look like? We have 11 teams, men's teams and women's teams. And we have more or less 200 people working for Club America in all the areas. Right now we have a fan base of 35 million followers in Mexico and 15 million followers in the United States. We are the first sports franchise in the United States. We are the most likely sports franchise for the Hispanic fans of soccer here in the United States.

4:40Of the basketball teams, MLB teams, NFL teams, America is the first one in the percentage of the population of younger Hispanics here in the United States.

4:50David Cushnan:Tell us a little bit about how you see the current business health of Liga MX. League MX is growing very fast. We have year by year better contracts, most followers in the league. The league and the owners of the teams, they are very tough with the needs of the clubs. We have like fair play for the salaries. We have to respect some kind of guidelines in the contracts of the players. The TV rights and the sponsorships are growing faster in the interest of the brands. The followers in the league and in all the teams are growing faster. But the problem is, like many leagues, that we have about five, six teams that invest in the club, you know, infrastructure, new projects, new salaries, in data.

5:41Right now, data is for us. It's a main project. But there are many teams that they don't invest as the rhythm of other teams. You start to separate, like in the Premier League or in Spain, there are four or five teams are in better shape and the other teams stay the relegates because they don't invest because the owner is only one person or the company don't want to invest. And right now, I think it's the thing that many equity funds are buying, many clubs that are struggling with the finances and invest the money for improved management, professional management, and invest in infrastructure, players, coaches, and many opportunities for growth.

6:26David Cushnan:One of the interesting things about Club America is, of course, you play in the Azteca Stadium, one of the world's most famous stadiums, and currently lots of refurbishment work going on to the stadium ahead of the World Cup. Can you give us a sense of progress there in terms of the readiness for the tournament? The stadium is almost two years of restructure and remodeling. We invest a lot of money as a good work and sacrifice. Right now, it's about 85-90 % for this Saturday game against Portugal in a friendly match FIFA date. And for the World Cup, it's going to be 100%. The new stadium is going to have hospitality seats, and more or less 4 ,000 that we don't have it.

7:09It's going to be the new technology, you know, the Wi-Fi and the entrance avenues for that Richard Stadium. There are many improvements in the stadium and we are very excited of the opening this Saturday.

7:22David Cushnan:We've heard a lot here and you hear a lot about the USA in the World Cup. Canada and Mexico obviously co-hosting as well. From your point of view, what sort of host of the World Cup will Mexico be? Well, Mexican people are, for us, is the best guest for the people, for the fans. All the people are very happy. We have a big offer of cultural museums, culinary offer, and all the people are exciting about all the games.

8:02of all over the world for the World Cup.

8:04David Cushnan:And what do you hope the legacy of the tournament will be in Mexico and for Liga MX and for Mexican football? For us, it's going to be, we're going to have a high visibility around the world in the ratings, in the television, in the fans. A lot of media, newspapers, radio, social media, is going to talk about Mexico, United States, Canada. And for us, for Mexico, it's good for the clubs, for the players, because all the coaches, all the scouts of all the clubs I want to watch the players, the clubs, the leagues, and obviously for the fans and for the brands that we have to keep stringing working with them.

8:42And for new partnerships that all the clubs always are very interested in new partnerships with brands.

8:48David Cushnan:You talked a lot about on stage what Club America is doing to engage fans in the USA and looking more internationally. and you've got your international director here who's doing a lot of that work and thinking about that every day. I wonder what your advice is as somebody who works in Mexico, in the Mexican sports industry, for anybody internationally, any international sport who is looking to come into Mexico, what advice would you give them? What do they need to know? What's something that is really important to know about the Mexican sports market? The Mexican sports market is growing very fast.

9:22The budget of the fans is not the same as in the UEFA leagues, that's Premier League, Spain League. They can spend a lot of money buying a jersey, buying an expensive ticket for a stadium. But they are very enthusiastic with the social media, with the ratings. And we have many stadiums for more or less 30 ,000, 40 ,000 people. Maybe I think that 80 % of the stadiums are sold out on the weekends. These people have to work very hard with the data and with the fan engagement because I think that Mexico forget. Since four years ago, we started to work with the data, with the fan engagement. We want to reach our fans.

10:04We want to embrace our fans. We want to give them satisfaction with championships, but to know what they want, what they like, what they want to spend. And we adapt and have empathy with our fans because the American fans are our core of the business.

10:22David Cushnan:I know you've got a very important dinner to get to, Hector. So one final question. This is the most important question. How will Mexico do in the World Cup? Okay, right now, in the last national teams, we have many players playing in Europe in good teams. Right now, we have some kind of players, Mexican players playing in the UEFA leagues, not in very important teams as four or eight or 12 years ago. but I think they are young. They are eager to win. They are humble. And maybe the media, maybe the broadcasters and the specialists don't believe too much in this national team, but I believe too much because they are working very hard.

11:02The coach is very good. And I think that our first games, it's supposed to be no easy to win because in the World Cup it's no easy, but we must win to go further in the World Cup.

11:15David Cushnan:Good stuff. Wish you luck. Until you play England, of course. But Hector, thank you very much indeed. Thank you very much. On the sidelines at Business of Soccer here in Atlanta, and I found James Johnson, a familiar face, James, to leaders SBJ events. But I think this is your first one in your new and exciting role at Canada Soccer. It is. Canadian Soccer Media and Entertainment. Yes. That's right. Rebranded. Rebranded. Rebranded, refreshed. Great to have you with us. Tell us about the new role. How long have you been in post? and that rebrand, one of several things that you have done already.

11:49David Cushnan:You've been making a mark. Yeah, no, I appreciate that, David. Look, I've been in the role since July 2025. I literally came straight out of Football Australia, had about two or three weeks break in between the two and then started afresh. I'm very excited, and I was at the time, about what was ahead for the game in Canada. High participation base, two very strong national teams, men and women, and a completely new infrastructure of domestic competitions that was getting ready to host a men's world cup so the opportunity was very interesting i've been there about eight months now in canada and you know my my focus is always driving change and transformation and being innovative you know we're starting to get some runs on the board we have a new deal in place with canada soccer where we take on all the business rights we own a media company as as well and we're acquiring a lot of right at the moment.

12:39We've done a rebrand of the league. We've connected the CPL to the leagues that sit underneath. So there's a lot going on, but a lot more to do as well.

12:46David Cushnan:I want to talk about a little bit of all of that. First of all, most important thing, wardrobe change, Sydney to Toronto. That feels quite extreme. Has it been that extreme? Put it this way. I think the summer in Sydney was one of the hottest in recent years. And the winter in Toronto, which happened contemporaneously, was the coldest in about three decades. So yeah, massive change and it did require a complete wardrobe overhaul. Tell us a bit about the rationale behind some of the work you've done, particularly around the rebrand and also this media business that you're developing. We've seen a number of deals announced, as you say, acquiring rights, Bundesliga, I think, among them.

13:23David Cushnan:What's underpinning that? So the rebrand, I felt we needed to start a new era. Just the colors of the CPL in previous years was blue and green. And we're in this period in Canada where people feel really great about being Canadian. So it didn't make any sense to me why we were green and blue. So we've flipped to red. It means we're very aligned with Canada soccer, with the nation's flag at a time when feeling Canadian is important. So that was the first time. I wanted to really connect the CPL to the men's national team because I believe the team will perform when we get to the World Cup. And I think the brand will grow.

13:58And I wanted to make sure that the CPL was part of that journey. And we also wanted to connect the CPL to the leagues that sit underneath the CPL, which are called the Premier Soccer Leagues, of which went through a rebrand at the same time. So that was really the purpose of the rebrand. Media acquisition is very, very different. We are creating an ecosystem of content where we place the CPL and the Canadian men's and women's national team from a content perspective, the very center. And then we're acquiring strategic international rights like the Bundesliga where we've got key players so that we can control the narrative arc and really tell the Canadian story of Alphonse Davies in this case.

14:34So we've acquired Bundesliga rights, we've acquired the NWSL rights, we've acquired only this week the UEFA Women's Champions League rights, and we're in the market for others as well.

14:44David Cushnan:You've worked on traditional media rights deals between broadcaster and property. How different are the conversations when you as a instance is a league entity or an entity that incorporates several leagues are going to other leagues to inquire about rights? You're looking at it in a slightly different way, but I've been on both sides of the table. So, you know, I can understand what UEFA wanted, for instance, with the Women's Champions League, right? They wanted us to legitimately promote the UEFA Women's Champions League, which we wanted to do. But where there's a great partnership, as we said, that's important for us.

15:15But what's more important for us is we really want to tell the story and promote Olivia Smith, for example, at Arsenal. We wanted to promote Buchanan at Chelsea, right? Like this is important for us. So we want to promote the UEFA Women's Champions League rights and other rights, but we want to do it through a Canadian lens and make it relevant to our fans in Canada.

15:32David Cushnan:You talked about it being a sort of important moment for Canadians to feel Canadian. And we obviously have this World Cup approaching, which I imagine is starting to dominate your thoughts as well. Before we get into that a little bit, just assess the overall health of Canadian soccer on and off the field and what you've encountered in joining the organization in a leadership role. For me as the incoming group CEO of Canadian soccer media and entertainments, I felt coming in and I validated this through my own due diligence when I got to Canada on the ground that the ingredients were there, but we needed to cook.

16:11We needed to structure things the right way. We needed to repair some relationships that had been damaged over the past. And I think we're getting there. We've got a fantastic relationship with Canada Soccer now. It's very clear that Canada Soccer runs the high-performance programs and does the governance for the sport. And we do the business. We've developed trust and we're working on the ground. We've got a deal in place now where we're co-incentivized to grow revenue because we have a revenue share. I think those sort of relationships are really helping us put everything together that I think was already there.

16:42David Cushnan:Throw in Canada hosting a good chunk of games in the Men's World Cup. What's the potential? I think that Canada will be the legacy story of the Men's World Cup in 2026. The United States have hosted in 1994. Mexico before that. Mexico, when they hosted, became a football nation. United States, Major League Soccer grew out of the 94 World Cup. So Canada hasn't had that opportunity on the men's side. And I think when Planet FIFA arrives on Canadian shores for the World Cup, I think we're going to see tremendous growth. I think we're going to see fans who have to engage with the sport, engage. I think we're going to see fans who coming out of the sport, you know, really feel connected to it.

17:19And, you know, our role is really to ensure that the men's and women's national team and the CPL is front and center so that they can be the vehicles to carry the interest of the sport when the World Cup comes and goes.

17:30David Cushnan:There's a lot of noise around this tournament for all sorts of reasons, sort of high-level macro political noise, geopolitics, stuff going on in the world. And I just wonder with your experience and you've worked with FIFA and you've been through a World Cup, Women's World Cup in your time at Football Australia, for leaders in your position and other key stakeholders around this World Cup, what tips, what tactics would you suggest to navigate through that and chart a path through that? Because there's an element of only being able to control what you can control in this kind of environment. Yeah, I think that's right.

18:04I think when it comes to the geopolitical issues, that's something that I think the sport is not really set up to do that requires close working relationships with government, which is in place. I think the role of the sport, whether it be FIFA or the federations or the key stakeholders, is really threefold. One is to deliver a great tournament. Number two is to make sure the home teams perform as best as possible. And number three is to make sure that we're all focused on legacy. And legacy is a little bit of a buzzword, But what I mean by legacy is being very specific about what parts of legacy.

18:38Is it participation? Is it commercial transformation? Is it breaking into mainstream? Is it infrastructure? Being very clear about what the legacy is and then having deliberate strategies to implement to actually bring into life.

18:49David Cushnan:I wanted to touch specifically, and you mentioned it earlier on the women's game. Canada has traditionally had a very successful women's national team, and there's clearly been a lot of recent work happening at league level. And I just wonder what your impression has been. Again, you've worked in Australia where there was such a great story around the Home World Cup for the Australian women, and they went so far and created a really, at least from the outside, a true sort of national moment back in 2023. What's your impression of what you found on the women's side. And again, thinking about a World Cup next year in a pretty good time zone for Canada, that feels like a bit of a primetime moment that's going to be a real opportunity.

19:25Yeah, I'm very excited about what I see with women's football in Canada. The team has traditionally driven the sport forward in Canada, and it still does to a certain extent. We have a great team. And I look at this as we have the Men's World Cup in 2026, and then we start shifting into the Women's World Cup in 2027. It's the same time zone in Brazil. We have, under my tenure, under my leadership, we have focused on women's football. We've acquired the NWSL rights. We've acquired the UEFA Women's Champions League rights. We've really ramped up the amount of storytelling we're doing for the women's national team.

19:57And another part of this deal we did with Canada Soccer, David, is we are going to incorporate the national registration system of which there's 700 ,000 registered participants in Canada, the number one sport in the country, into our digital ecosystem, and many of those are young girls. So we're playing a big role in that space. We've got to define our strategic relationship with the NSL. I wanted to focus on redoing the Canada Soccer Agreement as a first step, and that's a discussion that we're currently in at the moment.