Members of the media may directly contact the following experts on this topic:
Event Management / Costs
Milena Parent (English and French)
Full Professor, Telfer School of Management.
Professor Parent specializes in sport (event) governance and strategy, with her research focusing on the organization and strategic planning of sport organizations, particularly major sports events. She also examines sport system governance issues, such as stakeholder management, partnerships, networks and policies.
Kerri Bodin (English only)
Assistant Professor, School of Human Kinetics, Faculty of Social Sciences.
Professor Bodin’s research interests include sport management, sport event impact, sport policy, and event leveraging. She can touch on sport participation, social impacts, economic costs, and local residents' experiences with the 2026 World Cup.
Lavagnon Ika (English and French)
Full Professor of Project Management, uOttawa Telfer School of Management.
Professor Ika’s research focuses on international project management, including what makes complex projects succeed or fail; project performance and time and cost overruns.
Marc Tassé(English and French)
Part-time Professor, uOttawa Telfer School of Management.
Professor Tassé’s areas of expertise include accounting, business, corporate governance, and entrepreneurship. He can discuss costs and conflicts of interest related to the 2026 World Cup.
Health
Glen Kenny (English & French)
Full professor, School of Human Kinetics, Faculty of Health Sciences; SmartCone Technologies Research Chair in Heat Strain Monitoring and Management; and University Research Chair (Exercise and Environmental Physiology).
Professor Kenny is a world authority on heat stress and has reshaped our understanding of human heat resiliency. He can talk about the effects of elevated temperatures on human health at the 2026 World Cup.
Earl Brown (English only)
Emeritus Professor, Department of Biochemistry, Microbiology and Immunology, Faculty of Medicine.
Dr. Brown can discuss virology topics, such as the ongoing ebola and hantavirus, that could impact the 2026 World Cup.
Jason Nickerson (English only)
Adjunct Professor, Faculty of Law – Common Law Section, and member of the Centre for Health Law, Policy and Ethics.
Professor Nickerson’s research touches on international health systems and high-consequence infectious disease outbreaks/epidemics, and healthcare access.
"Canada is about to welcome hundreds of thousands of spectators to matches in Vancouver and Toronto and any mass gathering of people of this size deserves additional attention from a public health perspective. While Ebola and hantavirus warrant a robust response in places where they are spreading, they represent a low risk to Canadians. Rather, more routine diseases like norovirus, COVID, measles, and influenza are far more likely to generate outbreaks and are where we should be focusing most of our attention. We need to be investing in better surveillance and response mechanisms - including vaccines and therapeutics - for high-consequence infectious diseases like Ebola, but the risk of an outbreak occurring in Canada remains low."
Security
David Murakami Wood (English & French)
Full Professor, Department of Criminology, Faculty of Social Sciences; Canada Research Chair in Critical Surveillance and Security Studies.
Professor Murakami Wood’s research focuses on surveillance, security and technology around the world, including private surveillance companies, the rise of AI-based "smart cities," the regulation of Artificial Intelligence and their impact on human rights.
Steve Lorteau (English and French)
Long-Term Appointment Professor, Faculty of Law – Common Law Section.
Professor Lorteau can discuss how FIFA’s hosting requirements have prompted municipalities like Vancouver and Toronto to enact specialized by-laws that temporarily supersede local regulations regarding urban aesthetics, noise, and building codes.
Joao Velloso (English, French and Portuguese)
Associate Professor, Faculty of Law – Common Law Section.
Professor Velloso’s research touches on topics of law, governance and social control (public spaces, immigration, great events, protest). He can discuss themes related to event management, politics and security at the 2026 World Cup.
Sports Marketing / FIFA rules
Keri Kittle (English only)
Associate Professor, uOttawa Telfer School of Management.
Professor Kittle can tackle costs and event management topics related to the 2026 World Cup.
Gilles Levasseur (English & French)
Professor, Faculty of Law - Civil Law Section, and Telfer School of Management.
Professor LeVasseur's expertise includes contract law, economics, business management, human resources, project management, and international business. He can touch on marketing at the 2026 World Cup and the complexities of agreements FIFA has with national soccer federations and local host cities.
Immigration / Human Rights
Roojin Habibi (English and French)
Assistant Professor, Faculty of Law - Common Law Section.
Professor Habibi Roojin’s expertise bridges the fields of international law, health law and human rights. She can speak to the handling of developing health topics that impact the 2026 World Cup plus the impact of immigration bans.
Joao Velloso (English, French and Portuguese)
Associate Professor, Faculty of Law – Common Law Section.
Professor Velloso’s research touches on topics of law, governance and social control (public spaces, immigration, great events, protest). He can discuss themes related to event management, politics and security at the 2026 World Cup.
Emily Regan Wills (English and French)
Associate Professor, School of Political Studies, Faculty of Social Sciences.
Professor Wills' research interests include everyday US politics, transnationalism, immigration themes and borders.
“The current immigration crackdown makes this the US events at the 2026 World Cup unsafe for players and fans.”
Salvador Herencia Carrasco (English, Spanish and Portuguese)
Part-Time Professor, Faculty of Law – Civil Law Section and Director, Human Rights Clinic of the Human Rights Research and Education Centre (HRREC).
Professor Herencia's expertise includes International Law, Inter-American Human Rights System and International Criminal Law. He can discuss the human rights implications of the 2026 World Cup plus the decision to expand the competition for the current and future World Cups.
Competition / Performance
Tracy Vaillancourt (English only)
Full Professor, Faculty of Education, and Canada Research Chair in Youth Mental Health and Violence Prevention.
Professor Vaillancourt’s research includes youth mental health and mental health in youth sports. She can also speak to soccer’s growth in Canada.
Nicolas Moreau (French only)
Full Professor, School of Social Work, Faculty of Social Sciences.
Professor Moreau is an expert in the sociology of sports practices and social norms. He can provide analysis of the relationships between sport and society, as well as the political dimensions of sport, explaining how the 2026 World Cup reflects and shapes social and political values.
Nicholas Fabiano (English only)
Resident, Department of Psychiatry, Faculty of Medicine.
Dr. Fabiano’s research explores the impact of mental health on sports performance.
Gender Violence
Irvin Waller (English and French)
Emeritus Professor, Department of Criminology, Faculty of Social Sciences.
[email protected]
Professor Waller's research interests include gender-based violence, international criminal activity, criminal gangs, the prevention of crime and dangerous criminals. He can touch on what can be done to reduce gender-based violence during the 2026 World Cup.