The crowded field of candidates running for the presidency of U.S. Soccer was trimmed on Wednesday night, but only barely.

U.S. Soccer announced in a statement that eight of the nine announced candidates for the position had submitted the required three nominations to be eligible to run for the post, but the federation declined to name those individuals because it had been unable to complete background checks for at least two of them.

Several of the candidates, including the former men’s national team players Eric Wynalda, Kyle Martino and Paul Caligiuri and the former women’s goalkeeper Hope Solo, have publicly declared that they had the required nominations, and the first person in the race, the Boston lawyer Steve Gans, was reported to have his as well.