Off the Pitch

Soccer fans in Los Angeles did not show out for the United States women’s national team’s 5-0 victory vs. Dominican Republic in the Concacaf Women’s Gold Cup on Tuesday.

The USWNT will play all three of their group stage games at Dignity Health Sports Park, the home of the LA Galaxy. The players will be hoping the attendance improves as the tournament progresses.

On Tuesday just 3,242 fans filled the 27,000-seat stadium.

Why was the USWNT attendance so low?

Inter Miami will be the last club Luis Suarez plays for, the Uruguay striker said on Thursday.

Suarez, 37, signed a contract with the Major League Soccer side last year for the 2024 season after a stint with Brazilian club Gremio.

He reunited with former Barcelona team mates Lionel Messi, Sergio Busquets and Jordi Alba, with whom he won four LaLiga titles in five years in Spain.

""Inter Miami will be my last club, my family already know that. I don't have a date yet, but it's the last step," Suarez said in an interview with Uruguayan radio station Del Sol.

A Lindsey Horan apology was given to American soccer fans on Thursday during a press conference with the United States women’s national team.

Horan ruffled a litany of feathers for her February interview with The Athletic when she remarked on the low intelligence levels of USWNT fans.

"American soccer fans, most of them aren't smart,” Horan said to The Athletic. “They don't know the game. They don't understand. It's getting better and better.

France captain Kylian Mbappé has informed Paris Saint-Germain that he is leaving the club in July as a free agent seven years after joining them, The Athletic website reported on Thursday.

Mbappé, a member of France's 2018 World Cup-winning team, signed for PSG from Monaco in 2017 for 180 million euros ($194 million) to become the second most expensive player ever after Brazilian Neymar, who joined the French champions the same year for 222 million euros.

AMSTERDAM — A Dutch court on Wednesday sentenced Spartak Moscow forward Quincy Promes to six years in prison in absentia for drug trafficking.

Former Dutch international Promes did not attend court hearings in Amsterdam and is not expected to return to the Netherlands in the foreseeable future.

Prosecutors last month sought a nine year sentence for Promes, for his involvement in the smuggling of 1,360kg (2,998 pounds) of cocaine through the port of Antwerp, Belgium, to the Netherlands in two shipments in 2020.

Quincy Promes cocaine sentencing

Bay FC have signed Zambia forward Racheal Kundananji from Spain's Madrid CFF, the clubs announced on Tuesday, with the American team paying up to a reported $860,000 to set a new world record in women's football.

The 23-year-old, who joined Madrid in 2022 from fellow Spanish top-tier side Eibar, signed a contract through the 2027 season with an extension option for the 2028 campaign, the National Women's Soccer League (NWSL) club said.

Bay FC break Women's transfer record

The NWSL is no longer the only Division 1 women’s soccer league in the United States as U.S. Soccer announced on Friday that the new USL Super League has been granted top flight status.

The USL Super League will kick off in 2024 with eight teams and already has plans for more cities to join in 2025.

U.S. Soccer President Cindy Parlow Cone congratulated the new league on their status and said it will create more opportunities for women’s players in the U.S.

ATHENS — Greece will allow its top league soccer matches to be played with fans from Feb. 13, two months after top clubs were ordered to play behind closed doors following the severe injuring and death of a police officer in violence during a volleyball match.

In Greece, fights between football fans and clubs are frequent on and off the pitch before or after a game and the government has been trying for years to reform soccer plagued by criminal gangs and a minority of violent fans.