FIFA confirmed Tuesday that it has levied a series of fines and warnings to the Canadian Soccer Association due to poor fan and player behaviour during the recent series of World Cup qualifiers.

Now, Justin Trudeau is the Prime Minister, at the head of a Liberal majority. So, how does the new regime see our bid for the World Cup? We asked Carla Qualtrough, the Minister of Sport and Persons With Disabilities.

In the end, you’d have to believe that one bid would sabotage the other — and in the worst-case scenario — both would blow up because of it. Before we get to “official bid” time, Canadians need to decide which they’d rather go for.

So, with more internationals on NASL rosters, the question arises: Should the NASL break for the international windows?

But, if Montagliani was to win the presidency — and his candidacy is backed by the Canadian Soccer Association — it would only grow to this country’s growing presence in the region. Canada’s Sonia Denoncourt has already been charged with helping improve the standard of CONCACAF refereeing; some cynics would say she’s in charge of actually creating a standard for CONCACAF refs. And Scotiabank has taken over as the title sponsor of the CONCACAF Champions League.

Canadian soccer followers have seen it in World Cup qualifiers and in the CONCACAF Champions League — how the standards of officiating differ between Canada, the United States, Mexico, the Caribbean and Central America. But Canadian official Sonia Denoncourt has been put in charge of the region’s referees — can she create standards that make sure no one ever gets “CONCACAF-fed” again?

When Canadian Soccer Association President Victor Montagliani was tabbed to a part of FIFA’s 13-member reform committee, he was skeptical.

A senior World Cup played completely on artificial turf. It was part of Canada’s bid for the 2015 Women’s World Cup. A group of international players launched, then aborted, an Ontario Human Rights Tribunal case over the use of turf over grass. Now, with the tournament wrapped up, MARTIN MacMAHON assesses how the surfaces stood up (or not).

Those seats had been reserved for FIFA delegates. But hundreds of delegates who were supposed to be in those seat  decided to stay away from the Women’s World Cup opener — as it came just days after Swiss and American authorities made arrests of FIFA officials on racketeering and fraud charges.

When I read through the indictment from the United States Department of Justice, what was striking wasn’t the amount of money or that votes could allegedly be sold so easily. What was shocking was how little was hidden from plain sight.