Rocco B. Commisso will keep the Cosmos afloat for at least another month. (Photo courtesy of the Cosmos)

By Michael Lewis

FrontRowSoccer.com Editor

While the Cosmos await news of the fate of the North American Soccer League, the team will be around for at least for another month.

Cosmos owner Rocco B. Commisso, who already has paid for two months of salaries without knowing whether there will be a league in 2018, again has agreed to pay the team’s front office and several players through the end of next month, it was announced Tuesday.

“Staff and players will be paid until the end of February,” Cosmos Chief Operating Officer Erik Stover said. “Beyond that there are no certainties.”

The Cosmos and the rest of the league had hoped to hear of a ruling on their lawsuit against the U.S. Soccer Federation that was held in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit Dec. 15. It has been 45 days since the expedited hearing in the league’s request for a preliminary injunction to restore its Division Two status for 2018.

Prior to Christmas, Commisso said that he would pay front office and players’ salaries through the end of 2017. He extended the deadline through January and now through February.

Commisso saved the team from extinction last January by purchasing the club.

The team has not announced which players have been offered extended contracts.

Since the end of the NASL season, 11 Cosmos players have moved on or retired.

The latest to join a new team was Canadian international center back Dejan Jaković, who signed with the Los Angeles Football Club Tuesday.

The NASL wants to overturn a ruling in the U.S. District Court in the Eastern District of New York in November so it could continue as a Division II league this year. If not, the NASL has claimed that it will go out of business.