Politics

Typically, second round qualifiers for the UEFA Champions League are ho-hum affairs featuring clashes between footballing “minnows” from Europe’s lesser leagues and dominant clubs from decidedly top-heavy ones.

Where Scotland’s Celtic FC fits into this picture is up for debate, but what can’t be argued is that its upcoming tie against Linfield FC, a semi-professional club from Belfast, Northern Ireland, will be anything but boring, both on and off the pitch.

The epic saga that is David Beckham’s Miami MLS franchise is now a decade old, but it finally appears to be clearing some of the final major hurdles. When Beckham joined MLS in 2007, part of his incentive package was that after he retired he could launch a new team with a discounted franchise fee of only $25 million. 

FIFA is up to some nonsense this week. Like, even more nonsense than usual.

The two men overseeing FIFA's ethics committee investigations and sanctions have been let go, as well as all but two ethics committee members.

Per The Guardian:

Richard Lai, president of The Guam Football Association since 2001, pled guilty yesterday to two counts of wire fraud and one count of failing to disclose foreign bank accounts. His plea marks the first time that the U.S. investigation into FIFA corruption has indicted an official from outside the Americas. Although Guam is a U.S. Territory, the country competes with others in the Asian Football Confederation (AFC).

Cuauhtemoc Blanco has not had a good April. The Club America and Mexico National Team legend, anc current Mayor of Cuernavaca, Mexico, was named by a man who shot and a prominent Mexican businessman as one of the people who ordered the assassination. Blanco, who so far has no discernable motive for the crime, says he is being framed by the governor of the Morelos state, who he is obviously not on good terms with.

Blanco has talked about running for governor in the future.

Frauke Koehle, a spokeswoman for Germany’s federal state prosecutor in Karlsruhe, has confirmed that the three explosives that were detonated outside the Borussia Dortmund team bus were pipe bombs capable of traveling more than 330 feet. One of the three explosive devices contained metal strips, according to prosecutors, including one pin that pierced a headrest of a bus seat.

The USA, Mexico and Canada have reportedly agreed to submit a joint bid for the 2026 World Cup at the CONCACAF conference this weekend.