While there isn’t a lot of USL/Louisville City news to report today, aside from updates about the Team Store opening back up (please email or tweet all store-related inquiries to sstewart@louisvillecityfc.com or @ImScottStewart), the one item of news worth discussing is a bit of a doozy. CONCACAF, the regional federation of national soccer associations for the Caribbean, North, and Central America, has notified Ottawa Fury that they aren’t allowed to play in the USL Championship in 2019.

Per the Fury’s press release, they don’t know why not. The Canadian Soccer Association (“CSA”) and USSF both approved Ottawa to play in the Championship. They’ve been in the USL the last two seasons, and were in the NASL before that. FIFA does have some rules about clubs being required to play in their own countries, of course. However, waivers are not uncommon, as Welsh clubs play in the Premier League, a couple teams from Lichtenstein play in the Swiss league from time to time, and of course the three Canadian MLS teams and TFCII, which is still set to play in USL League One next season. There’s no reason I can think of why Ottawa shouldn’t be allowed to play in the Championship.

Except, of course, there is a reason. It just might not be a good one. The Canadian Premier League (“CanPL”) is set to launch in 2019 and will feature seven teams across Canada. Ottawa is an independent team without MLS’s backing. The chairman of CONCACAF is the former president of the CSA, which worked very hard to launch the CanPL. Seven clubs makes scheduling hard. Eight is a much nicer number. How else to pick up an eighth club when one isn’t ready to go just yet? Force the lone Canadian USL club to join up, that’s how. CONCACAF knows MLS is too important and has too much money to push Vancouver, Toronto, or Montreal around. But Ottawa’s all by its lonesome. It’s not owned by a big continental conglomerate. USL isn’t quite big enough to raise much of a fuss. The Fury, then, are ripe for the picking.

Yeah, that sounds a little too devious, but it’s the only explanation that really survives the Occam’s Razor test right now given the complete lack of explanation from CONCACAF for this absurd decision. CONCACAF isn’t exactly a shining example of propriety and ethics, which is saying something given the other FIFA confederations’ sordid history. If you’ve got time, Google Jack Warner and Chuck Blazer just to get some background knowledge on the shenanigans that this outfit has pulled in the past. It wouldn’t shock me in the least that someone stands to make some money off forcing Ottawa Fury to walk the plank and join the CanPL, a brand new league with no track record, history of success, or stability. I hope that the new league succeeds, frankly, but it should do so on its own merit, not with these power political tactics. Vive la Fury or something.