Ecuador have finally appointed a new national team coach. One hundred and one days after the resignation of Colombian Luis Fernando Suarez, who led La Tri to qualification for the 2006 FIFA World Cup Germany™, the Ecuadorian football association (FEF) appointed 47-year-old local man Sixto Vizuete, who has little experience but enjoys massive popular support after coaching Ecuador to a gold medal at the 2007 Pan American Games in Rio de Janeiro. Vizuete, who never played football professionally and has never coached a first-division side, was in charge for Ecuador’s most recent qualifying match for the 2010 FIFA World Cup South Africa™, a 5-1 win over Peru.
CONMEBOL has appointed Argentina as host of the Copa America 2011 and following a rumour that Brazil was interested in organising the tournament that year, the Brazilian football association (CBF) has strongly denied any involvement in the matter.
The Chilean football association (FFCH) recently celebrated the first use of floodlights on pitch no. 1 of its headquarters in Quilin, Santiago. The FFCH now aims to build a 1,200-capacity stand around the pitch for the women’s football league, which is exciting great interest in the Andean nation.
A vast mural by renowned artist Carlos Paez Vilaro has been added to the Uruguayan museum of football, which is located under one of the stands of the Centenario stadium. The work, which originated from an idea by CONMEBOL vice-president Eugenio Figueredo, was inaugurated at an event attended by sporting and government officials, including the Uruguayan Minister of Tourism and Sport. The donation by the 84-year-old Paez Vilaro combines two of Uruguay’s great passions, candombe music and football.

CONCACAF recently announced the official launch of its new continental club championship, the CONCACAF Champions League, which will start in August 2008 to replace the Champions Cup. The new competition will feature four teams from Mexico and the USA, three Caribbean sides, two clubs from Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Panama, and one team from Canada, Belize and Nicaragua. Eight clubs (two Mexican, two American and one from Costa Rica, Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador) will be seeded to receive a bye to the first round, with the other 16 teams competing in eight home-and-away ties from 26 to 28 August and from 2 to 4 September. The winners of these eight matches will join the eight seeded teams in the group stage that will consist of four groups of four teams that will play each other in a round-robin system over six match days (three home games, three away games) from 16 September to 30 October. The top two clubs in each group will advance to the knockout phase. The quarter-finals will get underway in February 2009, with the semi-finals following in March before the final in late April. The Champions League winner will qualify as CONCACAF’s representative at the 2009 FIFA Club World Cup.
The Barbados Football Association (BFA) held their annual awards ceremony at Almond Bay on 3 February. BFA President Ronald Jones, who is also Minister of Education and Human Resource Development, announced that local football would receive multi-million dollar investment following the conclusion of a contract with a major agency. The plan calls for the island to have its own professional league within the next two years. Also present were FIFA Vice-President and CONCACAF President Jack Warner, Barbados’ Minister of Family, Youth Affairs, Sports and the Environment Esther Byer-Suckoo, Permanent Secretary Lionel Weekes, BFA officials, dub representatives, award recipients and players.

The CAF executive committee held its last two meetings in Accra, Ghana and Tunis, Tunisia on 9 and on 24 February respectively. The board, headed by CAF President Issa Hayatou, discussed several matters and took the following decisions:
• The heads of venue in Accra, Kumasi, Sekondi and Tamale for the CAF Organising Committee for the 26th MTN Africa Cup of Nations Ghana 2008 presented their reports to the executive committee. The committee commended the Local Organising Committee for hosting a successful tournament, which had given African footballers a platform on which to express themselves positively on the field of play. The chairman of the referees committee also presented a referee performance report on the tournament. The executive committee unanimously expressed its satisfaction with the level of officiating during the tournament.
• The African Women’s Championship 2008 will be held from 15 to 29 November in Equatorial Guinea.
• The final phase of the new African Nations Championship (CHAN) will take place in Cote d’lvoire from 22 February to 8 March 2009. Thirty countries will play in the preliminaries of the new championship.
• The next General Assembly (elective) will take place in Lagos, Nigeria, on 10 and 11 February 2009.
• The next African Youth Championship (U-20) will take place in Rwanda (18 January-1 February 2009).
• The next African U-17 Championship will take place in Algeria, (19 March – 3 April 2009).
• CAF will launch tenders for the acquisition of TV and advertising rights for the qualifiers of the FIFA World Cup™/Africa Cup of Nations 2010, as well as for the new African Nations Championship (CHAN) in 2009, 2011 and 2013.