WATCH: Victor Montagliani on DroneGate, World Cup planning & state of Canadian soccer in 2024

OneSoccer's Kristian Jack sat down with FIFA Vice-President and President of Concacaf Victor Montagliani on Monday for a candid conversation on the state of soccer in the region, touching on a number of Canadian soccer issues and developments at both the club and international level.

Of particular note, Montagliani spoke about the DroneGate scandal, upcoming international and club tournaments, and wondered... can Lionel Messi do it on a cold night in Hamilton?

(Probably, yes!)

Here's the full video (above), and a few noteworthy quotes:

'Get on with it': The DroneGate Scandal of 2024

Upcoming FIFA World Cups in 2026 for the men and in 2027 for the women have dominated Montagliani and his team's planning and preparation for much of the year – understandably, of course. And as he pondered concepts like a 48-team Women's World Cup in 2031, or how best he can help prepare all three hosts in the 2026 affair to compete and advance, it's clear that Montagliani remains, firmly, a big-picture thinker – but he's also not skipping a beat when it comes to the day-to-day minutia, either.

It is clear, in speaking to Montagliani, that there's very little if anything in Concacaf that he isn't at least cursorily attuned to – no easy feat.

And yet, it's that same big-picture thinking that informed his response to questions about the dronegate scandal that rocked Canadian soccer this year.

"At a personal level, I just think it was stupid," Montagliani said, of the spying incident at the Olympics in Paris that ultimately saw Bev Priestman fired. "I'm not sure what the hell you would get out of that...

"Listen: It happened. They got caught in Paris .They went to the judicial system of football. Boom. And it happened. Get on with it. You know what? Get on with it. The players, quite frankly, deserve for the footballing nation and the nation to just get on with it. The players deserve that.

"The repercussions that happen? It happened, right? You don't need a royal commission every time somebody gets a red card. It happened. It wasn't a good thing. They were penalized for it. I think we need to support this women's national team because they have a tremendous amount of talent and a lot of important matches leading up to the World Cup in '27.

"In mature footballing nations there's stuff that always happens, right? Different things. They deal with it and they just get on with it. And I think we're at a point where we need to get on with it."

'A great glass of wine': Canadian soccer

Montagliani was also reflective on another year of growth in Canadian soccer, offering his thoughts on the state of the footballing ecosystem outside of a single media scandal that dominated headlines in 2024:

"With all due respect, I think the industry of football in this country has done a tremendous job over the last 12 years – maybe even 15," Montagliani offered. "MLS has done what they needed to do – hats off to the clubs for their academies and all the things they've done. We've created the CPL, and even in its infancy, it has shown that it's contributed to the landscape... and now a women's league."

"Obviously our national teams have performed well, and the women – we're ahead of the curve of everybody else and they continue to do well."

He added: "It's like right now, we're enjoying a great glass of wine... but a lot of people have to till the ground, put down the the plants, somebody's gotta pick the grapes and then you have a great glass of wine. So there's been a lot of work done in Canadian soccer, at all levels, to get to where we are today.

"Sure, have there been hiccups? Has there been people falling down? Yeah, absolutely. But that's the journey of a real footballing nation. Welcome to football, Canada – it's not always pretty, and there's repercussions when it's not always pretty.

"But, you know, I have to say that in the last dozen years or so, we should all be proud of the journey Canada Soccer is taking... and now we're reaping the benefits with our 2 top flagship teams, men and women, performing at the highest level."