Jeffrey Kessler, a veteran litigator in the sports arena, has filed his long-awaited antitrust suit against the governing body for soccer in the U.S.

The move against the U.S. Soccer Federation by the high-powered Winston & Strawn partner's client, the North American Soccer League, took the form of a 71-page complaint filed on Sept. 19 in a federal district court in Brooklyn, New York. It had been at least two years in the making.

In September 2015, shortly after securing a key court win for New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady, Kessler spoke publicly about the NASL's desire to compete with Major League Soccer, the top professional soccer league in North America, for sponsorship and marketing dollars. But the NASL's aspirations had been repeatedly thwarted by the USSF, Kessler said at the time, due to arbitrary and anticompetitive standards the organization set that allegedly disadvantaged his client.