Features

BC Craft Cannabis Meets the World at FIFA 2026

Published on June 5, 2026 by Nick Ward

Photo: Adobe Stock/the oz.

By Nick Ward | Special to the oz.

Matthew Greenwood is sitting in his garage in East Vancouver on a Tuesday afternoon in late May, smoking a joint that has been lit for twenty-three minutes, telling me about a Welsh football club.

“Look at Wrexham. Reynolds and McElhenney bought a bottom-division club and got them promoted up to the second top division, and now their fans in a Welsh backwater are watching A-League players show up in a town of 20,000.”

He took the afternoon off. 

The day before, the City of Vancouver approved a second store he has been working toward for the better part of a year. He has a cold, which is not stopping him from smoking a cannon of a joint.

This man is ready to help host the World Cup in his city.

“Soccer culture started as the backyard club, the local clubhouse, the men’s side playing two levels up the league pyramid while the under-14s play on the next field over. Semi-pros on one pitch and the crotch goblins on the next. That is the real culture that the World Cup is meant to celebrate.”

The people coming to Vancouver are arriving for seven FIFA World Cup matches between June 13 and July 7, played out of BC Place. Eight national teams play matches in the city across that window, seven of them visiting. Most of them are arriving from countries somewhere on the cannabis liberalization curve, which means they are not strangers to the plant. For most of them, what is new is the ability to walk into a licensed retailer on a Tuesday afternoon and buy some of the world’s finest cannabis. 

Brands Sidelined, Retailers Not

There is no FIFA partnership coming for Canadian cannabis. 

The Cannabis Act and its associated promotion regulations effectively block stadium signage, team kits, fan zones, and broadcast. Sections 17 through 24 cover the territory: general prohibitions on promotion, specific bans on sponsorship of any “person, entity, event, activity or facility,” and restrictions on facility naming. Producers cannot purchase visibility at venues where minors are likely to be present, cannot associate their brands with sport, and cannot conduct most forms of consumer promotion outside age-gated environments.

The BC Cannabis Control and Licensing Act adds a second layer at the provincial level. Provincial rules restrict retail signage visibility, restrict the use of cannabis branding in public-facing displays, and confine most retail promotion to the licensed premises. The promotional infrastructure a Vancouver beer brand could deploy across five weeks of international football is, for a cannabis brand, simply not available.

What remains is the storefront, the website, and the conversation across the counter. The producer cannot reach the visitor. The retailer can. 

Retailer as Host

Greenwood has been thinking about this for months:

“If you know anything about FIFA, you know that the people coming to your city are coming to smoke the best weed, drink the best beer, and have a party. They want weed that makes them happy and puts them in the mood. They do not want heavy indica. So I have bought heavy into hybrid and flavour-forward sativa for this. That is what someone from Belgium or Qatar or Australia is going to be excited about. You as a retailer have to make sure you have it.”

The second part of Greenwood’s thinking is harder for most retailers to provide, which is the logistics of consuming cannabis as a visitor in a city you do not know. 

“What people need to know is the laws around carrying. You can legally carry 30 grams of recreational cannabis on your person in a government-sealed container, and you must have the receipt. If you stay outside the FIFA zone, it will not matter as much. As soon as you go into that two-kilometre radius zone, they will want to see it. Take only what you plan on consuming. Do not bring anything you would hate to lose.”

He has some advice for World Cup visitors once they pick up some of BC’s finest craft. 

“Stay off Granville. Hang out in Gastown, Strathcona, and Mount Pleasant. The craft breweries in Mount Pleasant and Strathcona are dope. The cocktail lounges in Gastown are awesome. The restaurants and shopping in all three communities are fantastic. Get your weed, go to your game, then go spend your money in the communities that surround the area. Just do not go downtown if you can avoid it,” he says.

Up In Smoke has a comprehensive BC retailer guide for FIFA visitors covering carry rules, controlled zone logistics, and Mount Pleasant orientation. 

This is the kind of slow editorial work that pays off when visitors start researching “weed near FIFA zone”. 

Another way to serve up value to World Cup fans is through educating the visitors on what makes BC bud a world renowned brand.  

BC craft micro-cultivators tend to grow indoors using Living Soil Synganics or similar soil-based systems, hand-trim, slow-cure for 21 days minimum. Most run canopies under 200 square metres, which means a single grower or a small team is touching every plant. The flower on a Vancouver craft shelf in June 2026 was, in most cases, packaged in the previous 60 to 90 days by a team of fewer than ten people. 

A visitor from Brussels or Sydney is not likely to get access to such incredible cannabis in their home countries, at least not any time soon. 

Kyp Rowe, who runs Victoria Cannabis Company on Vancouver Island, put it plainly:

“BC craft is what happens when growers who have been doing this for 25 years are allowed to keep doing it their way. The retailers hosting FIFA visitors should be putting that forward. Living soil, hand-finishing, cultivars picked because they smoke well. The visitor from New Zealand or Australia has not likely seen any of that. Let’s show them the difference.”

The Audience Is Not Naive

Five of the visiting nations have functioning medical cannabis programs of one kind or another. Switzerland has been running adult-use pilot programs since 2023. Australia has more than one million medical cannabis patients and an active recreational framework in the Australian Capital Territory. Türkiye legalized medical cannabis in July 2025, with regulations published by the Turkish Ministry of Health in January 2026 and pharmacy dispensing under prescription. Belgium decriminalized possession of up to three grams back in 2003. New Zealand has medical with prescription and narrowly failed a 2020 recreational referendum.

Egypt and Qatar are the prohibitionist exceptions, but this might drive even more excitement since they will be able to access cannabis legally. 

Back in the garage the joint has been going for about 30 minutes now. As he thinks about the month ahead, he is clear-eyed about the kind of guest arriving in Vancouver, and what they are looking for. He’s put his shop in a position to provide a meaningful piece of it. But at least for him, this is more than just business.  

“Football is a beautiful game,” he says again. “But the fandom and culture around it is just as beautiful.” 

For the industry, this is a unique opportunity for BC Cannabis on the world stage. Once again operators will have to find creative ways to reach the visitors and educate them on what we have to offer.  

FAQ 

Which FIFA 2026 visiting nations have medical cannabis programs?

Five of the visiting teams playing in Vancouver come from countries with operating medical cannabis frameworks: Switzerland, Australia, New Zealand, Türkiye, and Belgium. Switzerland additionally operates adult-use pilot programs across multiple cities. Egypt and Qatar maintain prohibition. Canada, the host nation, has been federally legal since October 2018.

How many matches does Vancouver host?

Vancouver hosts seven FIFA World Cup 2026 matches at BC Place between June 13 and July 7, 2026. The schedule includes group-stage fixtures and at least one knockout match. Eight national teams play matches in the city across that five-week window, seven of them visiting.

Can Canadian cannabis brands sponsor FIFA?

No. The federal Cannabis Act and its associated promotion regulations under sections 17 through 24 restrict cannabis brand sponsorship of major sporting events. Canadian licensed producers cannot purchase stadium signage, team kit placements, or fan zone activations. Provincial promotion rules in BC layer additional restrictions on retail-level activity. Retailers and editorial publications operate under different rules and remain active.

What is BC craft cannabis?

BC craft cannabis refers to flower and concentrate produced by federally licensed micro-cultivators in British Columbia, operating under the Cannabis Act’s micro licence class. The indoor canopy cap is 200 square metres. Producers typically grow indoors using soil or hybrid systems, hand-trim, and slow-cure in small batches. British Columbia has one of the highest concentrations of federally licensed micro-cultivators per capita in Canada.

What is a farmgate cannabis dispensary?

A farmgate cannabis dispensary is a retail outlet operated by a licensed cannabis producer at the production facility itself, selling directly to consumers. The model is permitted in several Canadian provinces under specific provincial rules. In British Columbia, farmgate retail is regulated by the BC Liquor and Cannabis Regulation Branch.