Off the Pitch

Following a record-breaking season with the Columbus Crew, Wilfried Nancy was rewarded with 2024 MLS Coach of the Year honors on Wednesday.

Nancy, a finalist for the award for the last three seasons, won the award over Chris Armas of the Colorado Rapids and Gerardo "Tata" Martino of Inter Miami.

Nancy was hired by Columbus in December 2022 after two seasons at the helm of CF Montreal, where he finished 37-25-15. With Columbus, Nancy is 51-19-24.

Wilfried Nancy MLS Coach of the Year

Honduras have been ordered to play their next home match behind closed doors after Mexico coach Javier Aguirre was hit on the head by a can thrown from the stands following a Concacaf Nations League match last week.

Aguirre was left with blood seeping from a wound after being hit on the top of the head as he walked along the touchline to shake hands with counterpart Reinaldo Rueda after Friday's Nations League quarter-final first leg in San Pedro Sula.

NEW YORK — Women's soccer mogul Michele Kang will gift $30 million to U.S. Soccer, the sport's national governing body said on Tuesday, the largest donation ever directed for the organization's girls and women's programs.

The donation over the next five years will help grow competitive opportunities for girls and professional development for female players, as well as women in coaching and referee roles.

Michele Kang donation to U.S. Soccer 

BERLIN — German Bundesliga club St Pauli said on Thursday it was withdrawing from X because the social media platform had become an 'amplifier of hate' that could influence German politics.

Announcing its reasons for withdrawing, the club said in a statement that X's billionaire owner Elon Musk had turned a space for debate into "an amplifier of hate that was capable of influencing the German parliamentary election campaign."

St Pauli X controversy

Bev Priestman will not return as head coach of the Canadian women's soccer team following an independent report into the use of drones to spy on an opponent at this year's Paris Olympics, Canada Soccer said on Tuesday.

Priestman and two other team officials were previously banned by FIFA from any soccer-related activity for one year after New Zealand complained Canadian staff flew drones over their training sessions before their opening match in Paris.

The Europa League match between Turkish club Besiktas and Maccabi Tel-Aviv from Israel on Nov. 28 will be contested in a neutral territory in Hungary, UEFA said on Monday.

The match was originally a home game for Istanbul-based Besiktas, but the Turkish government had earlier decided not to host it in Turkey. It will now be played at Nagyerdei Stadium in Debrecen.

Besiktas vs Maccabi Tel-Aviv

Ecuador international Marco Angulo has died at the age of 22, a month after suffering critical injuries in a car crash, the Ecuadorean football federation said on Tuesday.

Angulo was involved in a traffic accident on Oct. 7 that also resulted in the death of his former youth team teammate Roberto Cabezas.

Angulo sustained head injuries and a lung contusion and died at a hospital in Quito on Monday night after a week in intensive care.

Marco Angulo death