May 23 – The United Soccer League (USL), the recently re-categorised and rapidly expanding Division II professional league in the US, is reporting record attendances for the first nine week of its season.
May 15 – Spain’s FC Barcelona will launch a team in the US National Women’s Soccer League for the 2018 season. The club, which is targeting brand growth in the US, says the team will strengthen its women’s programme.
By Andrew Warshaw in Manama, Bahrain
July 10 – Organisers of the three-country north American 2026 World Cup bid insist the bid will be clean and not be faced with any allegations of wrongdoing.
By Samindra Kunti
May 9 – Canada’s Soccer Association has sanctioned the establishment of a Canadian Premier League, allowing the country to operate its own professional league. At the top of the Canadian football administration pyramid Steve Reed will succeed CONCACAF president Victor Montagliani as the Canadian president.
April 28 – As expected, China’s Guangzhou Evergrande have been charged by the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) after the club’s fans unfurled a provocative banner in an Asian Champions League match describing Hong Kong’s independence movement as ‘poison’ and carrying the words: ‘Annihilate British Dogs’.
By Paul Nicholson
April 26 – Five days after CONCACAF filed a lawsuit in federal court in Brooklyn, New York, claiming $20 million in damages against former executives Jack Warner and Chuck Blazer, Warner has responded by saying he will file a suit against CONCACAF for $40 million claiming “persistent defamation” of character. He also says he is suing US Soccer Federation president and FIFA Council member Sunil Gulati personally.
By Paul Nicholson
April 21 – Caribbean Football Union (CFU) president Gordon Derrick has expressed disappointment at the resignation of two of his executive committee members who demanded he should resign after he lost an appeal at the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) over his exclusion from the CONCACAF presidential elections last year.
April 18 – Panama international Amilcar Henriquez has been shot and killed outside his home in the country’s Colón province, authorities there have confirmed.
April 13 – Former Ivory Coast, Chelsea and most recently Montreal Impact forward Didier Drogba has become the biggest name to join US challenger league the USL, the second tier of professional football in the US.
By Andrew Warshaw
April 11 – An expanded tournament to 48 teams, Gianni Infantino’s encouragement for a return to co-hosting and the re-establishment of rotation. It has all played very nicely into the hands of CONCACAF whose three biggest members have, as expected, now officially announced their intention to bid for the 2026 World Cup.
April 10 – CONCACAF, whose corrupt US officials and marketing representatives wrought one half of the storm that has decimated FIFA, held their 32nd Congress on the relative calm of the Caribbean island of Aruba at the weekend. Top of their agenda was the election of representatives to their own Council as well as to the FIFA Council.
April 6 – The long-running and often bitter dispute between the US Soccer Federation and the country’s top female players over wage discrimination has ended.
By Paul Nicholson
March 31 – The United Soccer League (USL) is expanding again, this time with the launch of a Third Division men’s professional national league that will start play in 2019.
March 27 – If the United States, Canada and Mexico jointly bid for the 2026 World Cup and are successful, all three should be allowed automatic berths in the competition according to the region’s top administrator.
By Paul Nicholson
March 23 – The spat over whether US Spanish-speaking network Telemundo would be allowed to broadcast Trinidad and Tobago’s upcoming Russia 2018 World Cup qualifying matches against Panama and Mexico has been resolved at the last minute. A Trinidad judge ruled that broadcaster owns the TV rights and that the Trinidad and Tobago Football Association (TTFA) has to allow Telemundo access to the stadium that had previously been denied.