October 14 – CONCACAF held its first International Referee Symposium over the weekend in Mexico, aimed at improving the standard of professional football referring across the region. The symposium marks another step forward for the confederation, following on from its first series of coaches courses, in its drive to improve standards through education and support throughout its federations.
By Mark Baber
October 4 – Head of Iran’s Football Federation (IFF), Ali Kaffashian said on Thursday that the US football federation has welcomed the prospect of a friendly football match between Iranian and US national teams.
By Andrew Warshaw
September 23 – El Salvador’s football federation has imposed life bans on 14 national team members for their roles in a match-fixing scandal. One other player was given an 18-month ban, two were suspended for six months, one was acquitted while four others face further investigation.
September 18 – CONCACAF completed the third of its D-License coaching course at the weekend in Aruba, part of a programme of development throughout the confederation to raise the future standards of play and provide a base qualification and path for coaches to follow.
By Mark Baber
September 13 – Seattle Sounders, who have reportedly sold 52,000 tickets for today’s MLS game against Real Salt Lake, have signed a new deal with Delta Airlines as well as extending their partnership with Xbox for another year.
By Andrew Warshaw
September 11 – While the United States and Costa Rica celebrated qualification for next year’s World Cup finals, perennial powerhouses Mexico have been plunged into further anguish after a dramatic night of action in the CONCACAF region.
By Andrew Warshaw
September 9 – José Manuel ‘Chepo’ de la Torre has been sacked as Mexico coach following last Friday’s shock 2-1 home defeat by Honduras that seriously dented their automatic World Cup qualification hopes.
By Paul Nicholson in Grand Cayman
August 26 – “This is where it all starts. CONCACAF has a duty to develop its youth players and these are the seeds to expand the vision of youth development. How many opportunities do these young players get to play against the best of their own age group? Before this they had no opportunity,” said CONCACAF president Jeffrey Webb as the final of the confederation’s U15 boys tournament came to a close in the Cayman Islands.
By Paul Nicholson in Grand Cayman
August 25 – At a reception in honour of the inaugural CONCACAF U-15 championship, the Premier of the Cayman Islands, Alden McLaughlin, declared the country “open for business and sports tourism. I am immensely proud and honoured that we in Cayman are hosting this U15 tournament – the first (under 15 tournment) for CONCACAF. It is also appropriate since we in Cayman also have the CONCACAF president.”
By Andrew Warshaw
August 23 – In one of the most alarming match-fixing scandals of recent months, El Salvador has temporarily suspended 22 players, drawing an immediate response from its governing confederation, CONCACAF, which said it was “deeply saddened” by the allegations.
August 14 – CONCACAF kicked off its first ever U-15 championship in the Cayman Islands yesterday with Bermuda beating the US Virgin Islands 8-0 and Belize beating St Lucia 1-0. The championships, an initiative of CONCACAF president Jeffrey Webb (pictured centre), will be played through to August 25 with 23 national teams competing for the title.
By Mark Baber
August 12 – Two Mexican league players have escaped punishment, despite testing positive for the banned performance-enhancing drug clenbuterol, after they claimed to have eaten the substance accidentally in contaminated meat, according to the Mexican Football Federation (FMF). In Mexico, the eating of contaminated beef has been accepted as a legitimate excuse for the presence of clenbuterol in an athlete’s sample since 2011, when the Mexican government pledged to address the public health problem of contaminated meat.
August 11 – CONCACAF took the first steps with its own coaching programme at the weekend with the launch of its D License coaching course in Mexico City. The D License is the first official licensing programme for coaches and will be the foundation of the Confederation’s coaching educational programme.
By Andrew Warshaw
August 7 – A Jamaican international and one of his country’s team officials have been suspended for 30 days by FIFA after they failed drugs tests following a 2014 World Cup qualifier against Honduras on June 11.
August 6 – Hard on the heels of the qualifying rounds of the Caribbean Football Union (CFU) Women’s Under 20 qualifiers, the CFU Women’s Under 17 tournament qualifiers kick off tomorrow in Puerto Rico.