FIFA Organization

The campaign to elect a new U.S. Soccer president is turning into wonderful, brilliant, shitty reality TV. It’s basically become an episode of Survivor, and the alliances are already being formed.

The U.S. Soccer Federation will elect its first new president since 2006, when Sunil Gulati started his tenure as the most powerful man in the sport in this country. Eight candidates are seeking election. Last I checked, only one can become U.S. Soccer president. 

We’re about 16 months away from the start of the 2019 Women's World Cup in France and FIFA released the official match schedule for the event on Thursday. The opening match will be played at the Parc de Princes in Paris, home of Paris Saint-Germain. Both semifinals and the final will be played at the Stade de Lyon. While both those venues are great, it’s hard to shake the feeling France is selling itself short with its stadium selection.

U.S. Soccer is going through a bit of turmoil right now. Presidential elections are about a week away, the contracts of the USMNT coaching staff are about to expire and one of the country’s young rising stars switched nationalities to Mexico. Perhaps most alarming right now: There are no March friendlies currently slated on the USMNT schedule. 

We interrupt your regularly-scheduled workday to bring you an alarming development from Russian agriculture ministry crop farming department head Pyotr Chekmarev, who, at an agriculture event in Moscow, said the World Cup could be overrun by locusts this summer.

You’d think it would be obvious by now, but apparently not. FIFA still has to tell its member federations that accepting bribes in exchange for votes on 2026 World Cup hosting rights is wrong. 

Jonathan Gonzalez, the 18-year-old wonderkind midfielder for Monterrey in Liga MX and the USMNT's next great midfield boss, has officially received clearance from FIFA to switch national teams and become Mexico's next great midfield boss.

When outgoing U.S.

It’s been a long time coming but the first officials have been convicted in a U.S. court stemming from the FIFA bribery scandal that rocked the world's football federation. Jose Maria Marin of Brazil and Juan Angel Napout of Paraguay were found guilty of racketeering conspiracy on Friday, the top charge they faced in the New York federal court. 

A Spain World Cup ban is an unbelievable possibility. FIFA is very emphatic when it comes to football federations' independence: they simply will not tolerate any government – or any other third parties, for that matter – influencing national soccer federations.

Similar to the rumors warning that Peru was in danger of a similar ban a few weeks ago, now FIFA admittedly has Spain in sight.