According to FIFA’s international match calendar, Canada’s senior men’s team will face Belarus March 29 in Antalya, Turkey. But FIFA announced Monday that it is investigating two international friendlies that were played in the Mediterranean resort. Last Wednesday, Estonia drew Bulgaria 2-2 and Latvia defeated Bolivia 2-1 in a doubleheader played in Antalya. In those two games, all seven goals were scored on penalties.

When news broke last week that women’s national-team coach Carolina Morace was going to resign after the 2011 World Cup over alleged CSA interference in her program, sympathy for the women’s program was widespread. After all, we were just a day from a massive CSA reform vote — and recently retired Kara Lang was off to Ottawa to carry the torch for the development of the women’s game in Canada. It was a noble cry for equality in a sports world dominated by men. But, after the vote, as the women announced their intention to boycott games through the media, there is no shaking that, with every passing day, their support is eroding.

If the women’s national team continues to boycott games into the 2011 Women’s World Cup, FIFA has laws in place that would allow it to fine and suspend the Canadian Soccer Association.

The Vancouver Whitecaps stuck to their guns. Omar Salgado, whose move to the club in August 2010 was scuttled after MLS discovered it would break international transfer rules, was grabbed with the No. 1 pick in the MLS SuperDraft in Baltimore. But, unless Vancouver gets special clearance from FIFA, he won’t be eligible to play for the team until Sept. …

But, if past history is an indication, MLS and other North American leagues need not worry about anything Blatter has to say about restricting domestic leagues.

While the rotten smell left behind by the voting process for the 2018 and, especially, the 2022 World Cups is still strong in FIFA’s Swiss headquarters, there is one bit of good coming out of the Qatar bid. And that’s the continuing rumblings that the tournament will have to be held in January — to give the players and fans a reprieve from the Qatari summers, where temperatures regularly soar past 40 C. Because, once and for all, it would smash the notion of the “international calendar,” a large truck of snake oil that has been pushed onto the world’s footballing community by rich, European clubs.

When FIFA names the winner of the female World Player of the Year, Christine Sinclair doesn’t even have to bother going to the ceremony. Marta, her teammate with the 2010 WPS champion FC Gold Pride, will likely walk away with her fifth win in a row. And, FIFA has already stated that the other two contenders for the award are …

For all the Canadian soccer fans hoping to make short hops across the border to catch World Cup games in 2022, there is disappointment. The United States’ bid to host the tourney was unsuccessful, as FIFA awarded the 2018 World Cup to Russia and the 2022 tournament to Qatar.

Basically, the league will look at a new format in which teams would start play in the fall, take a winter break, resume games in late February or March and finish the season in the spring.