I believe it was only really going to be a matter of time before things got real nutty with this whole USL/TOA/NASL/USSF mess. The Kartik Report found out this morning that the USL is suing the Tampa Bay Rowdies, Crystal Palace Baltimore and the Rochester Rhinos for breach of contract.

The three clubs had allegedly committed contractually to play 2010 in USL’s First Division but instead opted to play in the yet to be sanctioned North American Soccer League. (Here is a link to the court filing.)

Seeing the league sue these clubs is probably a bit about protecting their best interest and I don’t think we can blame them for doing so since these clubs were slated to be apart of the USL in 2010.

I’m sure this was one thing the meeting with the USSF wanted to avoid here. Going down this road has to be a troubling path for both sides. This whole time I haven’t really been on either side of the fence between the USL and NASL. I like some things both have done but I’ve tried to stay as neutral as I can here with it. I do think though right now the NASL needs to cool their jets a bit though. They are a very ambitious bunch that still has loads of work to do like putting schedules together, getting a front office, doing some PR, etc. All that and more with only a few months time to do it in.

If the NASL wanted a season so bad in 2010, they should have decided to do a shorter season to get their stuff in gear before doing an actual full season in 2011. Sort of a dry opening before the grand opening if you will.

Now as far as the USSF goes, they need to act quickly here to cool the bad press that will come of this news. We know they put together a little “task force” to over see things here with this mess but really that won’t be good enough here. It’s pretty clear the USSF has no real stance on this situation right now, other than being sort of confused I think.

This messy situation just keeps getting messier.