Fifa sponsors Visa, McDonald’s and Coca-Cola come together to demand change at football’s governing body July 24, 2015 Fifa has admitted it has struggled to attract new sponsors amid allegations of widespread corruption within the organisation. Read more: Visa threatens to withdraw Fifa sponsorship General secretary Jerome Valcke said the uncertainty surrounding president Sepp Blatter's future and the arrests of top officials had put negotiations for future sponsorships on hold. Football's governing body has [...]
eSports introduces random drug testing to combat doping in professional video gaming July 24, 2015 Professional video gaming is serious, competitive sport. And to prove it, leading organisation The Electronic Sports League (ESL) will begin randomly drug testing players at its competitive tournaments. Read more: Can professional video gaming take off in the UK? The European organisation will team up with the World Anti-Doping Agency to draw up an anti-performance enhancing [...]
Roger Federer, Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson named the three most marketable athletes in the world July 24, 2015 No one sells like a golden oldie when it comes to sports, according to a new power ranking of the world's most marketable athletes. Read more: Ronaldo named Europe's "most marketable" footballer Roger Federer, Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson are all nearing the twilight of their careers, but have been named as the three most marketable [...]
Arsenal director Lord Harris: Wenger has £200m to buy any player he wants – except Messi and Ronaldo July 24, 2015 Arsene Wenger has been told he has licence to break the club's transfer record by Arsenal director Lord Harris. Read more: Wenger pours scorn on United recruitment policy Arsenal have over £200m available to spend on new transfers, said the owner of retailer Carpetright, after overcoming the financial burden of building and moving to the Emirates. [...]
Film review: No knock-out blow for Southpaw July 23, 2015 Cert 15 | ★★☆☆☆ There’s an exchange that takes place in every boxing movie ever, in which the trainer takes his hot-headed young buck aside, points to his fist and says, “it’s not about this” and then taps his temple and says,“it’s about this.” The message: mind over muscle. Thought over fight. Well, what [...]
Film review: Maggie is a nuanced entry to the zombie canon July 23, 2015 Cert 15 | ★★★★☆ There are no one-liners or knowing winks in this Arnold Schwarzenegger zombie movie; it’s a bleakly plodding, quietly affecting drama that’s not so much interested in moments of terror, but what happens when they subside. On the face of it, the premise is familiar: a “necroambulist” virus that turns people into [...]
Film review: The Legend of Barney Thomson July 23, 2015 Cert 15 | ★★★☆☆ Robert Carlyle’s directorial debut is a grotesque carnival of murder and excess that consistently entertains but eventually trips up on its own wild ambition. It follows the titular Barney, a spiritless Glasgow barber guilty of the only sin that’s beyond redemption in his home-town: having nae banter. When he accidentally murders [...]
Theatre review: American Idiot July 23, 2015 Arts Theatre | ★★☆☆☆ Green Day and musical theatre seem like odd bedfellows until you consider that both are fun, infantile and the kind of thing that no self respecting adult would confess to enjoying. When the two came together for 2010’s Broadway production American Idiot, the show won two Tony awards and a Grammy; [...]
Film review: Inside Out July 23, 2015 Cert U | ★★★★☆ Kids are notoriously difficult to read. Try asking one whether they like school or turkey dinosaurs and all you’re likely to get is a non-committal shrug. But Disney Pixar’s latest animated feature will make you completely reassess the way you talk to pre-teens as it fires you right into the turbulent [...]
Perfect Saturday July 23, 2015 COFFEE COME-UPS THE BLACK LAB If you can’t function in the morning without a cup o’ joe then head to Clapham’s endlessly trendy Coffee House ‘The Black Lab’. Once you’ve had your morning fix of liquid gold head over to nearby Clapham Common for a Saturday morning stroll. Visit blacklabcoffee.com SUMMER COCKTAILS TOWN HALL YARD [...]