Short takes
• The Premier League season starts in only three weeks. This year, English clubs will be able to sign new players only up until the beginning of the season (previously, the window would go through the end of August). This has touched off a mad scramble, post-World Cup, as teams try to figure out what they need and complete their deals in a compressed time period.
• The latest sign that maybe North America doesn't need to import every part of world soccer culture happened this week in Ottawa, where Toronto was playing a Canadian championship game against the second-division Fury. Visiting Toronto fans smuggled flares and fireworks into the stadium and, in the second half, lit them off in the type of display that can be seen around the soccer world. Unfortunately, the fans' fireworks set the group's banners and flags ablaze as well and burned part of the section the fans were sitting in.
• Miami residents will vote this fall on whether to lease a city-owned golf course, adjacent to the city's airport west of downtown, to the David Beckham-led MLS Miami group. The group would build a 28,000-seat stadium, pay rent on the land and turn much of the rest of the golf course into a public park.
