By Paul Nicholson
August 24 – William Wallace, removed from the presidency of the Trinidad and Tobago FA by a FIFA Normalisation Committee just three months after being elected to office, is not backing down in the dispute to have the legality of board’s removal contested in Trinidad rather than at the Court of Arbitration for Sport in Switzerland.
August 21 – FIFA is not stepping back from its own statutes and rules of law and is maintaining that the Court of Arbitration for Sports (CAS) is the correct forum for the ousted former Trinidad and Tobago FA leadership who have complained against their replacement by a Normalisation Committee.
August 20 – FIFA has suspended two more Haitian football officials and has extended a 90-day provisional ban meted out to federation (FHF) president Yves Jean-Bart while it investigates allegations of teenage girls being sexually abused at the national training centre, built with a FIFA grant.
August 20 – Concacaf teams learned their pathway to the 2022 World Cup in Qatar after the preliminary draw paired 2026 tournament hosts Canada in Group B with Suriname, Bermuda, Cayman Islands and Aruba.
By Paul Nicholson
August 14 – Trinidad and Tobago High Court judge Carol Gobin has ruled against FIFA’s application to dismiss a lawsuit brought against it by former TTFA board members over their replacement with a normalisation committee.
August 14 – Major League Soccer’s expansion team in St. Louis will officially be known as St. Louis City Soccer Club. The team has also unveiled its official colours and logo.
August 13 – Concacaf will hold the draw for its reformatted 2022 World Cup qualifiers next Wednesday (August 19), and has announced the seeded pots for the first round group stages that will see 30 teams in action.
August 11 – Former Concacaf president and FIFA vice-president Jack Warner’s attempted re-entry into public life in Trinidad and Tobago has ended as fast as it begun after he failed to win election as a member of parliament in the country’s just completed elections.
July 30 – The Canadian Premier League (CPL) has announced it will kick off its delayed second season August 13, with a 35-match centralised tournament that will crown a CPL champion mid-to-end September.
July 29 – Viewing figures from the US show record numbers for the women’s club game and a significant breakthrough for the NWSL (National Women’s Soccer League).
By Paul Nicholson
July 28 – Regional confederation Concacaf has rescheduled and re-formatted the 2022 World Cup qualifiers that will see all 35 of its FIFA member associations compete for the three places at the Qatar finals, plus the half spot inter-confederation play-off.
July 28 – Concacaf has scheduled the 2021 Gold Cup in the US for next July, and in a unique revamp of qualification – and to take account of lost international windows due to the Covid pandemic – the preliminary rounds will see the 12 competing teams centralised in the US.
By Paul Nicholson
July 22 – Los Angeles is to get its first professional women’s team with a consortium led by Oscar-winning actress Natalie Portman having been awarded a franchise by the National Women’s Soccer League (NWSL).
By Paul Nicholson
July 22 – US Soccer had another significant win in court this week in the lawsuit brought against the federation by Relevent Sports who have been campaigning to stage regular season league matches from non-US leagues in the country.
July 21 – Jack is back, really. FIFA’s most-wanted, Jack Warner, the disgraced former Concacaf president and FIFA vice president currently battling extradition to the US, is bidding to re-enter politics in his home country of Trinidad and Tobago as a member of parliament.