{"id":900112,"date":"2026-04-18T15:17:17","date_gmt":"2026-04-18T20:17:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/2026\/04\/18\/ex-super-bowl-winner-luke-wilson-blasts-canada-soccer-over-italy-jersey-exchange\/"},"modified":"2026-04-18T15:17:17","modified_gmt":"2026-04-18T20:17:17","slug":"ex-super-bowl-winner-luke-wilson-blasts-canada-soccer-over-italy-jersey-exchange","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/2026\/04\/18\/ex-super-bowl-winner-luke-wilson-blasts-canada-soccer-over-italy-jersey-exchange\/","title":{"rendered":"Ex-Super Bowl Winner Luke Wilson Blasts Canada Soccer Over Italy Jersey Exchange"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<div id=\"post-featured-container-id\">\n<figure><img width=\"780\" height=\"439\" src=\"https:\/\/heavy.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Luke-Wilson-Rips-Canada-Soccer-Over-Italy-Jersey-Exchange-1.png?w=780\" alt=\"Luke Willson and Canada Jersey\"   decoding=\"async\" fetchpriority=\"high\"><\/figure>\n<div>\n<p><span><br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tGetty\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/span><\/p>\n<p>Luke Willson Rips Canada Soccer Over Italy Jersey Exchange<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p>Former <a href=\"https:\/\/heavy.com\/sports\/nfl\/seattle-seahawks\/seattle-super-bowl-history-record\/\">Super Bowl<\/a> winner <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/LWillson_82\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener external\">Luke Willson<\/a> blasted Canada Soccer after a jersey exchange campaign involving Italy sparked outrage. He called the move classless and questioned the decision-makers for essentially kicking a nation when it was down.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/heavy.com\/sports\/soccer\/italy-misses-third-fifa-world-cup\/\">Italy failed to reach the FIFA World Cup<\/a> for the third consecutive tournament after losing to Bosnia and Herzegovina on penalties. There was plenty of significant attention on the matchup, as the winner would play Canada in Toronto for its Group B opener.<\/p>\n<p>Many were excited for the possibility of a Canada vs. Italy matchup. Given the large Italian community in Toronto and across Canada, it could have had a positive economic impact.<\/p>\n<p>Willson, an Italian-Canadian, voiced frustration with the move after Canada Soccer offered Italian supporters a <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/CanadaSoccerEN\/status\/2040150864900325806\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener external\">free exchange for their jerseys<\/a>. Their goal was to build support for the upcoming FIFA World Cup.<\/p>\n<p>While the promotion was framed as a jersey swap, attendees received a free Canada jersey instead. Although they kept their Italian jerseys, the former <a href=\"https:\/\/heavy.com\/sports\/nfl\/seattle-seahawks\/\">Seattle Seahawks<\/a> tight end felt the campaign was in poor taste.<\/p>\n<hr>\n<h2>Luke Willson Calls Canada Soccer Jersey Exchange Offer Classless<\/h2>\n<p>Luke Willson did not hold back when sharing his feelings on Canada Soccer\u2019s attempt to gain support from the Italian community. Willson, who currently works as an analyst for <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/TSN_Sports\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener external\">TSN<\/a>, even claimed his own outlet helped push the narrative.<\/p>\n<p>During an episode of his <em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=wBZoD7yknSM\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener external\">Film Never Lies<\/a> <\/em>podcast, Willson called the move classless across the board.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI gotta take a stance on this. You wanna talk about just a classless move across the board,\u201d Willson said. \u201cThis is where I get jammed up, right? Again, you think of Italy, you think of soccer. And I think of my grandparents, a lot of people here that love the Italian national soccer team.<\/p>\n<p>He added:<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhen we lost in hockey in the gold medal game, especially to the United States, it was detrimental,\u201d he said. \u201cImagine we don\u2019t even qualify for the <a href=\"https:\/\/heavy.com\/sports\/olympics\/\">Olympics<\/a>. Like, Italy is down bad right now and what does Canada Soccer do? I was flat out embarrassed. TSN was pumping it everywhere.\u201d<\/p>\n<hr>\n<h2>Willson Claims Canada Soccer Backtracked After a Negative Response<\/h2>\n<p>Willson also claimed that <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/CanadaSoccerEN\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener external\">Canada Soccer<\/a> backtracked after receiving a negative response from Italian supporters. He believes the promotion backfiring resulted in them making an excuse.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAt first I thought it was like let\u2019s see if we could get rich quick here,\u201d he said on his <em>Film Never Lies <\/em>podcast. \u201cAnd then they\u2019re trying to backtrack, \u2018We didn\u2019t actually swap them out.\u2019 Get out of here, that\u2019s trash. Tell me I\u2019m wrong.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>When asked which team he would support if Canada played <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/FIGC\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener external\">Italy<\/a>, Willson answered with humor. He would appease whoever he was with, but made it clear Canada would ultimately have his support.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYes, absolutely [all Italian-Canadians should support Canada at the World Cup]. But that doesn\u2019t mean you trade your jersey in,\u201d he said. \u201c[Who would I have supported?] It depends on who I\u2019m talking to. [But if it was Canada against Italy,] I would have supported Canada.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>\n\t\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/heavy.com\/author\/giancarloaulino\/\"><strong>Giancarlo Aulino<\/strong><\/a> Giancarlo Aulino is sports writer who covers UFC for Heavy.com. He began writing for Heavy in 2025 after providing MMA coverage for Sportskeeda. Giancarlo is an experienced journalist and interviewer, having covered soccer clubs Toronto FC and Inter Toronto FC as a full-season reporter, and also producing sports coverage for Toronto radio station VIBE 105.5FM.<br \/>\n <a href=\"https:\/\/heavy.com\/author\/giancarloaulino\/\">More about Giancarlo Aulino<\/a>\t\t<\/p>\n<p> Lloyd Pekar <br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/news.google.com\/rss\/articles\/CBMie0FVX3lxTE95clkyMEtteGk2M01NT0dkSmIxTFVXTTR5enRkeVUxamJTSWtDbWhIRHlyRnJDMGNWQmtsSTRwMVV6ZkNFQkZZX0dmZS11OFF2T19YLUVRR2RWaXVpUjY3MGozLVIzX1RfUGhGMDJERE9HLTJVY3E1T2lPWQ?oc=5\" class=\"button purchase\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Getty Luke Willson Rips Canada Soccer Over Italy Jersey Exchange Former Super Bowl winner Luke Willson blasted Canada Soccer after a jersey exchange campaign involving Italy sparked outrage. He called the move classless and questioned the decision-makers for essentially kicking a nation when it was down. Italy failed to reach the FIFA World Cup for<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":900113,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[129287,1728],"tags":[129286,7869],"class_list":{"0":"post-900112","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ex-super","8":"category-winner","9":"tag-ex-super","10":"tag-winner"},"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/900112","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=900112"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/900112\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/900113"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=900112"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=900112"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=900112"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}