The North American Soccer League is suing the United States Soccer Federation.

The bid committee overseeing the joint U.S./Canada/Mexico push for the 2026 World Cup released an updated list of potential host cities for the tournament on Thursday.

The United Bid Committee announced Tuesday that it has sent Requests for Information to 44 cities in North American, regarding a total of 49 stadiums. Included on the list are Toronto (2), Montreal (2), Vancouver, Ottawa, Regina, Calgary and Edmonton. 

The CAF has said it will back the Morocco bid, and this is where it gets interesting. Africa has 54 full members, so that means from the continent Morocco already has more than half the votes it needs to usurp the CONCACAF bid. If you want to compare a FIFA vote to a Canadian federal election, think of the CAF as riding-rich Ontario. Win Ontario, and you become awfully tough to beat.

What Miami FC, along with the lower-division Kingston Stockade FC (a team based in New York state), did is initiate an international legal proceeding targeting FIFA, CONCACAF and the United States Soccer Federation. What do the two clubs want? They have gone to the Court of Arbitration for Sport, claiming that FIFA is violating Swiss law (the body’s headquarters are in Switzerland) by not compelling the USSF to have a system of promotion and relegation between its professional divisions. MLS is Div-1, while USL and NASL are Div-2.

But, when the Mexican, American and Canadian soccer associations joined together Monday in New York to unveil that they would sign a memorandum of understanding to jointly bid for the 2026 World Cup, United States Soccer Federation President Sunil Gulati said that, in fact, this tripartite pact had been in the works for years.

For one, well, FIFA rules state that, for senior tournaments, all games have to be played on the same type of surface. So, of COURSE that means Mexican and American venues are going to have to make sure they’ve got artificial turf to match the Canadian standard! Yes! I can’t wait to hear droning international-feed commentators moaning about how brutal the turf temperature is at Azteca Stadium during an afternoon game in July.

Post-Christmas, Canadian Soccer Association and CONCACAF President Victor Montagliani told the media that he was “open” to the idea of a joint bid between Canada, the United States and Mexico for the 2026 World Cup.

Remember, though, FIFA has a rule about senior World Cups. All games must be played on the same surface. Either they’re all on grass, or all on artificial turf. Unless that rule changes, or the Mexicans and Americans agree to tear up a lot of grass, a joint bid would mean that Canadians would be left with the very pricy option of placing grass surfaces in stadiums.

Why was Canada’s women’s national team coach so angry? Because Christine Sinclair, who moved into the No. 2 spot on the all-time women’s international scoring list in 2016, wasn’t on the shortlist for The Best FIFA Women’s Player Award. (Herdman was also skipped over in the coach-of-the-year selections).