English football’s financial might was demonstrated anew on Thursday as business analysts Deloitte revealed that England’s 92 professional clubs generated record £4 billion ($5.8 billion, 5.2 billion euros) revenues in 2014-15. Fired by the all-powerful Premier League, which saw revenues climb three percent to £3.3 billion, England’s professional clubs breached the £4 billion threshold for the first time. Premier League clubs generated £1.5 billion more than their nearest rivals in Germany’s Bundesliga and with a new £5.14 billion television rights deal due to kick in this year, their dominance is set to continue. “The pace of football’s financial growth in…
Author: David Folami
German midfielder Ilkay Gundogan has joined Manchester City from Bundesliga side BorusDortmund on a four-year deal, the Premier League club announced on Thursday. The 25-year-old, who had a year remaining on his Dortmund contract, is the club’s first signing since they confirmed Spanish coach Pep Guardiola would take over at the Etihad from Manuel Pellegrini prior to the start of next season. City did not disclose financial details of the deal but British media reported that Gundogan would cost the Premier League club around 20 million pounds ($29 million). “I’m thrilled to have signed for Manchester City,” Guendogan said in…
England manager Roy Hodgson’s work over the last four years should earn him a contract extension, his assistant Gary Neville has said. Hodgson, who took over from Fabio Capello in May 2012, led England to a quarter-final finish at the European Championship a month later but he oversaw a poor 2014 World Cup campaign, where the side were eliminated at the group stages. “Yes, people would argue that the 2014 tournament was a major disappointment,” Neville said in an interview in Henry Winter’s book “Fifty Years of Hurt”. “I’d agree with that but this summer is a big moment in…
In the rolling foothills of the Bavarian alps, where cows lazily chew grass on sun-drenched meadows, Germany and Bayern Munich star Thomas Mueller is the pride of his ex-club TSV Paehl. “Did you know that the nicest, most popular and probably Germany’s best current footballer – Thomas Mueller – learnt to play football in the youth teams of TSV Paehl until he was 10?,” the club proudly boasts on its website as it invites youth recruits. Many young Bavarians would love to follow Mueller’s path and lift the Champions League and World Cup for club and country. Paehl, 50 kilometres…
Sometimes, just sometimes, bad news can also be good news. Respected Italian journalist Gianluca Di Marzio just reported that Andrea Berta, sporting director at Atletico Madrid, has turned down a job offer from Manchester United. This is bad news for United since Berta works at a club that for the past five years has performed significantly beyond its means, reaching two UEFA Champions League finals in that time. But it is also good news because it means that United are recruiting for a position that they did not seem to acknowledge until recently. For the past three years, Ed Woodward,…
Tottenham have opened talks with Lyon for Alexandre Lacazette but are already encountering difficulties in negotiations for the 25-year-old. Les Gones’ chairman Jean-Michel Aulas is a notoriously tough negotiator and is said to be pushing for a fee close to £30 million, while his Spurs counterpart, Daniel Levy, is only willing to go to £24 million. The Mirror believes Spurs have leapt to the front of the queue after positive discussions with the player’s representatives, though West Ham and Paris Saint-Germain remain in the hunt. Lacazette fired Lyon to second in Ligue 1 this season with 23 goals, though that…
Bringing in Switzerland international midfielder Granit Xhaka before June was a good start to the summer for Arsenal, but Arsene Wenger still has a long to-do list during this transfer window if the club are to mount a Premier League title charge. After last year’s inactivity — when Arsenal didn’t sign a single outfield player — this promises to be Wenger’s busiest summer in years. Not only does he want to bring in a couple of more players, there are also plenty of question marks to address concerning his current squad. Here’s a look at the five most pressing issues…
Sevilla have refused to accept allow its sporting director Monchi to leave the Europa League holders, and say all speculation over the future of the reported Manchester United and Everton target should now end. Former Sevilla goalkeeper Monchi took the position at the Estadio Sanchez Pizjuan in 2000, when the club were in the Segunda Division in Spain. They have since won nine trophies including four UEFA Cup and Europa League triumphs — most recently by beating Liverpool in this season’s final — with Monchi’s ability to identify and sign players playing a huge part in that success. Monchi’s relationship…
England boss Roy Hodgson is confident his young, attack-minded squad will have the balance required for Euro 2016 and hopes Marcus Rashford will show his “special qualities” in France. England’s final 23-man squad features five attackers, eight midfielders, seven defenders and three goalkeepers after Hodgson opted to cut Danny Drinkwater, Andros Townsend and Fabian Delph from the provisional squad. There had only been three specialist centre-backs in the initial selection, along with the versatile defensive midfielder Eric Dier, and concerns have been raised that there is little defensive cover in the case of injuries or suspensions. Hodgson told a news…
Euro 2016 is a potential target for Islamic State (IS), the head of the EU’s law enforcement agency has said. However, Europol director Rob Wainwright told the Press Association the risk is “not necessarily high” given the massive security operation set to be mounted by the French authorities. On Tuesday the US government issued a travel alert to Americans warning of the risk of potential attacks throughout Europe. The State Department singled out the tournament, which will be held in France from June 10 to July 10. Mr Wainwright said: “I have no doubt that the Euros are on a…
Manchester United’s player of the year in the 2010-11 season spent the 2014-15 struggling out on loan at Real Madrid under then-manager Carlo Ancelotti. He was then returned to United last August before finally joining Leverkusen on a three-year contract. “If I’d had more chances at United or Real, I’d probably have been ‘the star’ there as well — we’ll never know, because I didn’t have the chance,” Hernandez told FourFourTwo. “I never had the chance to play 20 games in a row so people could say: ‘He’s a good player who should stay’ or ‘He can’t be the star…
Portugal’s friendly game with England on Thursday is an opportunity for the team to demonstrate that they can prosper without absent talisman Cristiano Ronaldo, coach Fernando Santos said on Wednesday. Ronaldo, Portugal’s captain and all-time leading scorer with 56 goals, will miss the Wembley encounter as he is resting following his involvement in Real Madrid’s Champions League final victory over Atletico Madrid in Milan last Saturday. It deprives Santos of his most potent attacking weapon, but he called on the other players in his squad to step up to the plate in their penultimate warm-up game ahead of Euro 2016.…
Under the mantra ‘never change a winning team’, Bayern Munich’s new coach Carlo Ancelotti wants to build on his predecessor’s work and plans talks with Pep Guardiola before taking charge. Guardiola walked away last month having steered Bayern to three German league titles in three years and will coach Manchester City next season. In his final season, the Bavarian giants became the first team to win four back-to-back Bundesliga titles, a run started by the Spaniard’s predecessor Jupp Heynckes in the 2012-13 season. Ancelotti, who wants to copy Guardiola by giving his first press conference in German and is busy…
Lionel Messi’s former tax advisors came out in support of the football star on Wednesday as his trial for alleged fraud continued in Barcelona, saying he never handled his wealth management. Messi, 28, and his father Jorge Horacio Messi are accused of using fake companies in Belize and Uruguay to avoid paying taxes on €4.16 million of his income earned through the sale of his image rights from 2007-09. The trial kicked off in Barcelona on Tuesday, and the five-time World Player of the Year himself will take the stand on Thursday before joining his Argentina teammates for the Copa…
Manchester United captain Wayne Rooney on Wednesday hailed the club’s “exciting” appointment of new manager Jose Mourinho. Former Chelsea manager Mourinho, 53, was appointed on a three-year contract last week and succeeds the sacked Louis van Gaal. “It’s exciting. He’s one of the best managers in the world,” Rooney told a press conference in Watford ahead of England’s friendly against Portugal on Thursday. “Obviously he knows the Premier League really well. For myself and the Manchester United players, I’m looking forward to it.”
England captain Wayne Rooney has backed teenage Manchester United teammate Marcus Rashford to make an impact at the European championship finals starting in France next week. “The way he’s performed to the end of the season has been incredible, really, for his age,” Rooney told a news conference after a training session on Wednesday. “He showed what he can do in his first game for England,” added the 30-year-old, who made his England debut at 17 and will lead the side against Portugal in their final Euro 2016 warm-up at Wembley on Thursday. “His attitude is first class … he…
Amid indiscriminate bombing of oil installations by Niger Delta Avengers, President Muhammadu Buhari will visit the volatile Niger Delta region on Thursday, June 2, Guardian reports. The President has not been to the south-south region since his inauguration on May 29, 2015. He scheduled to visit Cross Rivers but the trip was cancelled. According to the President’s media aide, he would travel to Ogoniland in Rivers state to flag off a long-awaited clean-up of the area, which has been affected by oil spills. “All things being equal, the president will be in Ogoniland on Thursday for the historic clean up…
President Muhammadu Buhari has assured Nigerians that he would do everything necessary to secure oil facilities and other government assets in the Niger Delta region. The president gave the assurance during the democracy day lecture organised on Tuesday in Abuja by the Save Democracy Group Africa, to mark the 2016 democracy day. The theme of the lecture is, the Change Agenda and Sustenance of Nigerian Democracy. The President was represented by Secretary to Government of the Federation Babachir David Lawal He said while his government would not shy away from finding non-military solution to the vandalism and destruction of oil…
Former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar had said he would have sold 10% of the NNPC if he was elected the President of Nigeria when he ran. Atiku made this remark on Tuesday, May 31, 2016 while urging Nigerians to give President Muhammadu Buhari a “pass mark’’ for his efforts in the first year of his administration. He made the call in Abuja at the launch of a book titled “We Are All Biafrans’’ written by Chido Onumah. According to Atiku, who was chairman at the occasion, of the five areas the Buhari administration pledged to face, he has accomplished two and…
Nigerian Senate President, Bukola Saraki has said that anti-graft agencies are literally paying lip services to the issue of fighting corruption. Saraki made the statement after going through the report of the audit report of the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), where there are several allegations of corruption to the tune of over N1trillion. In a report by TheCable, the Senate President accused the anti-graft agencies of finding pleasure in harassing government officials than investigating allegations of corruption in the oil sector. Speaking when a delegation of the Nigeria Extractive Industry Transparency Initiative (NEITI) led by Waziri Adio, its executive…