Barcelona director fired for suggesting Lionel Messi wouldn’t be as good without teammates January 13, 2017 A Barcelona director has been sacked by the club after claiming Lionel Messi relied on his teammates to get to the top of the game. Pere Gratacos is a key figure in the club's famed La Masia academy but has been fired from his role as director of training and education after questioning their star player's ability. Messi's contract [...]
Chelsea financial results: Exact cost of sacking current Manchester United boss Jose Mourinho revealed January 13, 2017 Sacking Jose Mourinho cost Chelsea £8.3m last season, new financial accounts released by the club have revealed. Yet dismissing the current Manchester United boss following a disastrous start to the season in 2015 proved to be significantly cheaper than the £67m paid to terminate another high-profile deal — the club's kit manufacturing partnership with Adidas. Last [...]
Football clubs represent high integrity risk to banks, says Dutch regulator January 13, 2017 Financial institutions need to up their game to combat football corruption, an investigation by the Dutch central bank has concluded. Reporting today, the regulator said banks were exposed to greater "integrity risks" when taking on football clients. And the central bank said this meant financial institutions should "apply a higher risk classification" when dealing with football [...]
Football pays tribute to true gent Graham Taylor January 12, 2017 Sir Alex Ferguson led a chorus of tributes from English football to former Three Lions manager Graham Taylor, who died yesterday aged 72 following a suspected heart attack. Taylor boasted an outstanding CV in club management having led Watford from the old Fourth Division to runners-up spot in the top flight in just six seasons, [...]
The Kite Runner at Wyndham’s Theatre is competent and compelling but never really takes off January 12, 2017 If you weren’t content with only a book and a film, now The Kite Runner has been turned into a West End play. Fresh from a tour of the UK, this remarkably stripped back production could have done with a little beefing up now it’s found a stable home for a few months. The vast, [...]
La La Land review: Ryan Gosling and Emma Stone star in this giddy, joyous tale of young love in the big city January 12, 2017 The unanimous backslap that greeted La La Land at the Golden Globes last week has only reinforced the idea that Hollywood is head-over-heels, all-weekend-in-bed, marriage-and-babies in love with itself. And why not when it can churn out hits like this. La La Land is entirely deserving of its praise, and so much more than a [...]
Everton January spending set to reach £45m as Morgan Schneiderlin completes transfer from Manchester United January 12, 2017 Everton manager Ronald Koeman has hailed the signing of Morgan Schneiderlin after completing the £24m signing of his former Southampton midfielder. Schneiderlin’s move from Manchester United takes Everton’s January spending to £35m and they are expected to invest further on £10m Standard Liege forward Ishak Belfodil. “I’m very pleased because I know the player, I know [...]
Jonny Bairstow hopes heavy defeat acts as wake-up call for England ahead of one-day series with India January 12, 2017 England batsman Jonny Bairstow believes his side have had a wake up call after suffering a heavy defeat in their final warm-up clash prior to the start of the one-day series with India. Bairstow top scored for the tourists with 64 and opener Alex Hales made 51, although England slipped from 116-1 to 211-9 before [...]
Australian Open prize money 2017: How much can tennis stars win in Melbourne? January 12, 2017 Tennis stars will do battle for the second largest prize money reward in the sport's history when the Australian Open gets underway in Melbourne on Monday. A men’s and women’s singles champion prize of AUS$3.7m (£2.2m) is the most generous ever offered at the tournament and second only to last year’s US Open in size. This [...]
West Ham refuse to sell Dimitri Payet despite midfielder’s refusal to play for Hammers January 12, 2017 West Ham boss Slaven Bilic insists the club will not sell Dimitri Payet despite the France midfielder refusing to play in tomorrow’s Premier League clash with Crystal Palace. Payet, a £10.7m signing from Marseille in 2015, is thought to be the subject of renewed interest from former side Marseille. The 29-year-old signed a bumper new [...]