The North American Soccer League’s civil lawsuit against U.S. Soccer board members in the Supreme Court of the State of New York has been dismissed.

Judge Andrea Masley ruled that the suit, filed last February, overlapped with the NASL’s antitrust suit against U.S. Soccer and Major League Soccer. That case is in the discovery stage in U.S. district court in Brooklyn.

Masley ruled the defendants were “substantially similar” and the allegations and legal issues were practically the same, requiring the case to be dismissed in the interest of “judicial economy and to avoid duplication of effort or avoid conflicting rulings on similar issues.”

The NASL sued U.S. Soccer, before it added MLS — for its refusal to grant it Division 2 status in 2018. The league, has not played since 2017, sued 14 of the 15 voting members of the USSF board of directors and secretary general Dan Flynn for breach of fiduciary duty.

The board members named in the lawsuit were then-president Sunil Gulati, then-vice president Carlos Cordeiro (now president), Pro Council members Don Garber and Stephen Malik, Youth Council members Jesse Harrell and Timothy Turney, Adult Council member Richard Moeller, Athlete Council members Chris Ahrens, Carlos Bocanegra and Angela Hucles, independent directors Valerie Ackerman, Lisa Carnoy and Donna Shalala and at-large director John Collins.

Front Row Soccer editor Michael Lewis has covered 13 World Cups (eight men, five women), seven Olympics and 25 MLS Cups. He has written about New York City FC, New York Cosmos, the New York Red Bulls and both U.S. national teams for Newsday and has penned a soccer history column for the Guardian.com. Lewis, who has been honored by the Press Club of Long Island and National Soccer Coaches Association of America, is the former editor of BigAppleSoccer.com. He has written seven books about the beautiful game and has published ALIVE AND KICKING The incredible but true story of the Rochester Lancers. It is available at Amazon.com.