Today, the world celebrates play.

The 2026 FIFA World Cup opens with packed stadiums, raised flags and millions watching the world’s game. It is also International Day of Play—a reminder that play is not just entertainment. It is a right, and a vital part of how children learn, grow, recover and belong.

The contrast should give us pause.

On the same day the world celebrates play at its highest level, millions of children are being denied the chance to experience it at all.

Some have no safe place to play. Some are out of school. Some are living through conflict, displacement or poverty. Some are working when they should be learning. Many are being forced to grow up without the basic experiences that make childhood possible.

That matters to Canada—especially now.

As a World Cup host country, Canada has an opportunity to show that sport is more than spectacle. It can be a platform for education, inclusion and opportunity.

Canada is already acting on that belief at home. Through its recent investment in the sport system, the federal government has recognized that access to sport is tied to safety, participation, inclusion and opportunity for children and youth. As the world turns its attention to Canada for the World Cup, we have an opportunity to carry that same commitment beyond our borders.

That is why Canada’s support for No Child on the Sidelines — a new initiative led by Right To Play in partnership with Global Citizen as part of the FIFA Global Citizen campaign to raise USD $100 million for education and sport-based programs — is so timely. Further, it exemplifies the kind of legacy Canada should be building as a World Cup host.

Building on a long-standing partnership between Right to Play and Global Affairs Canada, the new $5 Million initiative will expand access to sport- and play-based education for children aged 3 to 18 in underserved communities around the world. It will directly reach more than 60,000 children and support approximately 15 grassroots and civil society organizations, with nearly half of the programmable funding flowing directly to local partners and additional support strengthening capacities and shared learning.

That local focus matters. Children do not need abstract commitments. They need trusted adults, safe spaces, schools, coaches, teachers and community organizations that can reach them where they are.

Too often, play is treated as something extra — a reward after the “serious” needs of education, safety and survival have been met.

But for children, play is serious.

Through play, children build confidence, solve problems, form relationships and reconnect with school and community life. In crisis settings, play can provide routine when everything else is unstable. It can help children process trauma, rebuild trust and regain a sense of normalcy.

This is not only a distant problem. Play is shrinking in many of the countries that will be cheering loudest during the World Cup. In Canada, only 22 percent of children spend three or more hours playing outdoors each day, compared with 56% of their parents' generation. In the United States, most parents believe children today play outside less than previous generations did. In the United Kingdom, outdoor play has fallen dramatically over a generation.

For children facing conflict, poverty and displacement, the loss is far more severe. More than one in five children globally now live in areas affected by conflict. Nearly 138 million are engaged in child labour and 273 million are out of school.

When children lose play, they lose more than recreation. They lose a pathway to learning, well-being, protection and possibility.

That is the central message of International Day of Play: every child has the right to play. Yet for far too many children, that right remains theoretical.

Right To Play has spent more than 25 years working to make it real. In some of the world’s most challenging contexts, it uses play-based programs to help children learn, heal and overcome adversity. No Child on the Sidelines builds on that experience by investing in organizations closest to children and communities.

That is the kind of legacy Canada can help build as a World Cup host country.

The world already understands the power of sport when it fills a stadium. We should also believe in that power when it reaches a child in a refugee community, a rural classroom, a conflict-affected neighbourhood or a place where girls and boys have been told they do not belong.

Canada’s World Cup moment should not only be about hosting matches. It should be about what we choose to stand for while the world is watching.

Do we treat play as essential to childhood, or as something children can afford to lose?

Every child deserves the chance to learn, grow, heal and dream.

Every child deserves the right to play.

And no child should be left on the sidelines.