BC History: BC Versus The World
Professional soccer was not fully established in BC until 1974. Up until then, professional teams from across the globe would descend on our Province to play exhibition games against local amateur all-star teams. These matches were a highlight of the annual soccer calendar in BC and brought considerable pride in the achievements of BC’s players.
Beginning in 1911,125 of these All-Star games have been played. In the first All-Star game, the Vancouver All-Stars lost 5-1. Two days later, a Ladysmith & Nanaimo combined team tied Corinthians 2-2. The two games in Vancouver each attracted 4,000 spectators, the largest attendance to that point.
Then followed a ten-year gap which included World War One and fighting within soccer in BC. In 1920 two groups applied to Canada Soccer to be recognized as BC’s governing body. The winning group was led by promoter Con Jones who promised they would bring Newcastle United to visit and give Canada Soccer 15 percent of the proceeds.
After the end of World War Two, the international visitors resumed their trips to British Columbia and the first post-war visitors were Newcastle United in 1949, a visit notable for their manager’s criticism of the grass-less Callister Park as a “disgrace to football”. The pitch did not seem to faze his players, as they put 13 goals past BC All-Stars in two games.
Since the 1950s, visiting National Association teams had been replaced by pro clubs. Many were from England and Scotland, such as Tottenham who visited three times between 1952 and 1966. From South America came Santos and Cruzeiro of Brazil. The visit of Santos in 1972 was particularly special, as this brought Pele, recognized as the world’s best player, to play at Empire Stadium. 16,300 fans got to see Pele and 15 players from the BC Premier League got to play against “the King”. Santos won 5-0.
May 5, 1974 marks the end of the days when the best of BC’s amateur and semi-pro players lined up against visiting professional teams. When the newly-formed Vancouver Whitecaps played their first game in the North American Soccer League, and professional soccer finally took root in British Columbia. From then on, touring teams mostly played the professional clubs instead of local All-Star teams.
The full BC Takes on the World report includes a list of all visiting teams spanning over 60 years. The information sources have mostly been original research of newspaper archives and contributions from BC’s soccer community. We recognize that inevitably this report will contain other omissions. If you have information that would improve the report and its record of these games, please contact the BC Soccer Heritage & Hall of Fame
