Sunday 29 July 2012

Nigeria edge Tunisia in Olympic Basketball Opener


Image: Associated Press

In the opening game of Olympic men's basketball competition, Nigeria edged African rival Tunisia 60-56 on Sunday. Both African teams were making their debuts in Olympic men's basketball. It looked like Nigeria, faster, stronger and quicker to the ball, was headed for an easy victory over Tunisia.
Meanwhile in preliminary round action Tuesday, Nigeria will play Lithuania and Tunisia will take on the gold-medal favorite United States.

According to Voice of America, a crowd of almost 7,000 attended the Nigeria-Tunisia game at the Olympic Park Basketball Arena, one of the largest temporary venues ever built for an Olympics. The 12-team Olympic men's basketball tournament will culminate August 12th with the gold medal game.

Go Tigers!

How 205 national anthems were recorded for London Olympics’ medal ceremonies

Getty Images

Isn't this amazing? It's an indelible part of the Olympics: Hearing the national anthem of the gold medal-winning athlete or team played as the flags are raised above the champions.
According to Olympic guidelines, the anthems have to be between 60 and 90 seconds long, so they fit snugly into the flag-raising time frame. So where do the London Olympic organizers get their hands on 205 recordings of anthems that are perfectly times and aren't just cut off at the end?
The London Philharmonic Orchestra, that's where. The London Philharmonic Orchestra (LPO), based in London, is one of the major orchestras of the United Kingdom, and is based in the Royal Festival Hall.

Monday 16 July 2012

Manchester United is Most Valuable Sports Team


Despite losing the Premier League title to City rivals last season, Manchester United still lay claims of another title, though the world’s most valuable sports team. Forbes estimates Manchester United is now worth $2.23 billion, 19% more than No. 2 Real Madrid, worth $1.88 billion.
Below are the ratings of sports teams that occupy the top ten spot as released by Forbes.

#1 Manchester United
Value: $2.23 billion
Owner: Glazer family
The Red Devils are the world's most valuable sports team and have a long tradition of great play on the pitch. Manchester United has captured a record 19 English Premiership titles and claims to have 659 million fans worldwide. Next up for the Red Devils: an IPO on the New York Stock Exchange to reduce debt from Malcolm Glazer's purchase of the club in 2005.

#2 Real Madrid
Value: $1.88 billion
Owner: Club members
Real Madrid had the highest revenues of any soccer team during the 2010-11 season and was the most profitable team in all of sports during 2011, with operating income of $214 million. Club members have owned and operated the team since it was founded in 1902. Real won its record 32nd La Liga title in 2012, led by its star winger Cristiano Ronaldo (above, center).

#3 New York Yankees
Value: $1.85 billion
Owner: Steinbrenner family
The Yankees are just part of a money making machine that also includes the YES Network and Legends Hospitality. YES, the team's 34%-owned regional sports channel, is the most profitable RSN in the country with operating income of more than $200 million. Legends, the stadium management and concessions company owned by the Yankees, Dallas Cowboys and Goldman Sachs, signed a deal last year to sell season tickets at the San Francisco's 49ers new stadium. The enterprise value for the Yankees, YES and Legends is estimated to be $5.5 billion.

#4 Dallas Cowboys
Value: $1.85 billion
Owner: Jerry Jones
Cowboys' owner Jerry Jones is a master salesman and has attracted the NBA All-Star game, the Super Bowl, a Manny Pacquiao fight, soccer matches, concerts and more to Cowboys Stadium since the $1.2 billion venue opened in 2009. It will host the 2014 NCAA Men's Final Four as well. The stadium can hold 110,000 people, including standing room. One thing Jones has not been able to sell is naming rights to the building, which could fetch $15 million annually.

#5 Washington Redskins
Value: $1.56 billion
Owner: Daniel Snyder
The Redskins have made the playoffs only three times since Dan Snyder bought the team in 1999. That hasn't stopped fans from flocking to FedEx Field and making the Redskins the NFL's most profitable team in recent years. The 'Skins paid a king's ransom in April of three first round draft picks and a second round choice in a trade with the St. Louis Rams for the right to select Robert Griffin III (#10 above) with the second overall pick. Griffin won the 2011 Heisman Trophy while at Baylor.

#6 Los Angeles Dodgers
Value: $1.4 billion
Owner: Guggenheim Baseball
Frank McCourt sold the Dodgers in April through a bankruptcy court-led auction to Guggenheim Baseball for $2 billion. The deal included an additional $150 million to create a joint venture with McCourt on the parking lots and land around Dodger Stadium. The new ownership group includes Los Angeles Lakers' great Magic Johnson, former president of the Atlanta Braves and Washington Nationals Stan Kasten and film producer Peter Guber. Chicago financial services firm Guggenheim Partners financed most of the deal. The new group paid a record price for the franchise based on an impending new local TV deal that is expected to be worth more than $3.5 billion in cash and equity.

#7 New England Patriots
Value: $1.4 billion
Owner: Robert Kraft
The Patriots are one of the NFL's best-run teams on and off the field. The Patriots have sold out every game at Gillette Stadium since it opened in 2002 and made the playoffs eight of the past nine years. Quarterback Tom Brady (above) is just the second quarterback, after John Elway, to lead his team to the Super Bowl five times. Brady's last trip to the Super Bowl ended in disappointment when the Pats lost to the New York Giants for the second time in five seasons in the big game.

#8  FC Barcelona
Value: $1.31 billion
Owner: Club members
Barcelona has won two UEFA Champions League titles over the past four seasons, riding the golden feet of Lionel Messi (above). Barca's home stadium, Camp Nou, has the biggest seating capacity of top European teams at 99,400. The team's broadcasting revenue of $266 million was tops among all soccer teams in 2011.

#9 New York Giants
Value: $1.3 billion
Owners: John Mara, Steven Tisch
The Giants celebrated their second Super Bowl title in five seasons in February, led by MVP Eli Manning (above). MetLife acquired naming rights to the New Meadowlands Stadium last year, filling a glaring hole in the stadium's financial picture from when it opened in 2010. MetLife was paying $7 million annually as a cornerstone partner, but the naming-rights deal is expected to cost more than $400 million over 25 years. It would represent the biggest naming-rights deal for a current NFL stadium (Farmers Insurance has pledged $23 million per year if a new stadium is built in Los Angeles). The stadium, home to both the Giants and Jets, is scheduled to host the 2014 Super Bowl.

#10 Arsenal FC
Value: $1.29 billion
Owner: Stan Kroenke
Arsenal has won the second-most FA Cups (10), just one fewer than Manchester United. Match day revenue of $150 million in 2011 was fourth highest among soccer teams.The Gunners' commercial revenue was $74 million in 2011, but got a boost last season due to new sponsorship agreements with brewer Carlsberg and Betsson, the gaming company.

REPORT ACCORDING TO FORBES
Meanwhile, Manchester United fans will once again get a chance to own a piece of the iconic club as the Glazer family filed plans this month for an initial public offering on the New York Stock Exchange. The Glazers took the club private in 2005 in a leveraged buyout worth $1.47 billion. (The team traded on the London Stock Exchange before then.)
Don’t expect to be picking the next manager if you buy shares. The Glazers intend to keep control of the club through a dual-class share structure, where the Glazers’ shares will be worth 10 votes apiece, while the public gets one vote for each share. Dual-class shares are unusual, but a number of high-profile companies, including Facebook, LinkedIn and The New York Times, use them to retain control at the top while they sell ownership stakes to the public. With the offering, the team can reduce its hefty debt load, which stood at $663 million as of March.
Manchester United has a host of lucrative sponsorships in place. Insurer Aon pays $31 million a year to put its name on the team’s jerseys in a deal that runs through 2014. Last year, DHL Express inked a four-year deal with the club worth a reported $62 million to sponsor Manchester United’s practice jerseys. It is the first case of a practice jersey sponsorship deal for soccer in the U.K. Nike manages the team’s merchandise sales and the agreement is worth a minimum of $39 million annually for Manchester United based on overall sales in a deal through 2015.
Soccer clubs hold the top two spots among the world’s most valuable franchises, but it is American football teams that dominate the rest of the top 50. All 32 NFL teams made the cut, led by the Dallas Cowboys, worth $1.85 billion, tied with the New York Yankees for third overall. The Cowboys are the kings of the NFL thanks to their $1.2 billion stadium, which generates more than $100 million annually from premium seating and nearly $60 million from sponsors like AT&T, Bank of America, Ford Motor and PepsiCo.
The future looks even brighter for NFL teams thanks to a new labor agreement, as well as a new round of TV contracts. The league and its players endured a four-month lockout last year, but no regular season games were lost. The new collective bargaining agreement ensures labor peace for 10 years and gives owners a bigger piece of the pie, as players settled for a salary cap based on 48% of total revenues versus roughly 54% in previous years.
The NFL inked extensions to its TV deals with CBS, ESPN, Fox and NBC last year. The nine-year deals (ESPN is for eight years) start with the 2014 season and are worth $5 billion a year collectively, a 62% bump on the prior contracts. The average NFL team is worth $1.04 billion.
Major League Baseball landed seven teams on the list (same as soccer), led by the Yankees. As Forbes pointed out in a cover story earlier this year, baseball is flush with TV money thanks to a boom among regional sports networks hungry for content. The Yankees’ YES Network, which is 34% owned by the team, is the most profitable RSN in the U.S. generating more than $200 million in operating income last year. The team is also a cash cow with $330 million in ticket revenue in 2011, including luxury suites. The Red Sox had the next highest gate at $190 million.
Basketball and Formula 1 both placed two teams among the 50 most valuable franchises. The Los Angeles Lakers jumped 13 spots and are now ranked No. 35 with a value of $900 million, up 40% from last year. As with baseball, revenue growth is tied to TV. The Lakers struck a deal with Time Warner Cable beginning with the 2012-13 season valued at an average of $200 million a year, compared to $35 million under their old agreement. Time Warner will show games on two regional sports channels, one in English and one in Spanish. The Lakers have by far the biggest audience on TV, averaging 258,000 households on Fox Sports West last year.

F1 powerhouse, Ferrari, ranks No. 15 with a value of $1.1 billion, up 3% from last year. Ferrari extended its $52 million-a-year sponsorship deal this year with Spanish bank Santander. This follows Ferrari’s blockbuster extension last year with sponsor Marlboro worth as much as $500 million over three years. McLaren’s value fell 2% this year to $800 million as main backer Vodafone is reviewing its sports sponsorship commitments. McLaren would be hard pressed to replace Vodafone at comparable levels. McLaren also faces the free agency of Lewis Hamilton, who is one of the most marketable drivers in the sport. Hamilton’s contract expires at the end of 2012.

Sunday 15 July 2012

BOXING: How Khan and Chisora kissed the canvas

Courtesy: Guardian.co.uk (Amir Khan on the canvas after being knocked down by Danny Garcia.)
Devastating knockdown for Amir Khan sees Danny Garcia take his title
Referee had to end the Las Vegas fight in fourth round, sending British boxer away defeated from a fight he should have won.


The referee stepped in to stop the fight in the fourth round after WBC champion Garcia launched a series of blistering attacks on Khan which saw the Briton felled three times.

"I always knew I had it in me. I feel like the great fighters bring the best out of me and Khan is a great fighter," Garcia said after the fight.

Khan, who has now lost three times in 26 professional bouts, posted an message on his official Facebook page saying: "Can I apologize to my family friends and everyone. I got caught with a shot and I know millions of u are upset but that's boxing for u."

The 25-year-old lost his World Boxing Association (WBA) and International Boxing Federation (IBF) belts to Lamont Peterson in December 2011, but was reinstated as the WBA champion earlier this month after the American failed a drugs test prior to their scheduled rematch in May.

The IBF are still to decide on what course of action they will take regarding the original fight.



David Haye and Derek Chisora Fight


It was Haye's power allied to some trademark nimble glove work which finally prevailed as the 10-round fight sanctioned by the Luxembourg Boxing Federation neared the halfway stage. come to blows after fight

Towards the end of the fifth round, the 31-year old unleashed a devastating left-hook before a follow-up right hand floored Chisora.pes of boxing with Amir Khan
The Zimbabwe-born fighter made referee Luis Pabon's count comfortably but crashed to the canvas again seconds later following a barrage of punches from Haye.

He staggered to his feet a second time but Pabon stopped the fight leaving Haye to milk the cheers from a boisterous 30,000-strong crowd.
Sworn enemies before Saturday's fight, Haye and Chisora finished the night exhanging pats, smiles and handshakes in front of photographers, before both publicly declared a truce to their bitter war of words.

"Whatever beef I had with Dereck before the fight is over now from my side and I hope it's vice versa," Haye told Sky Sports.

"After sharing a ring with Dereck I have a new found respect for the man. I had respect for his boxing ability but I never believed he could be as good as he was tonight. He raised his game," Haye added.
Chisora agreed. The two men had made up and could now "eat in the same restaurants and go to the same clubs," the 28-year-old said.

"It was a great fight and everything is done."

#Reports according to CNN#

Thursday 5 July 2012

Afcon qualifiers draw - find out who plays who

Courtesy: mtnfootball.com
The Confederation of African Football (CAF) on Thursday held the draws for the final round of qualifying ahead of the 2013 Africa Cup of Nations. Below are the fixtures 
Mali vs Botswana
Zimbabwe vs Angola
Ghana vs Malawi
Liberia vs Nigeria
Zambia vs uganda
Cape Verde vs Cameroun
Mozambique vs Morocco
Sierraleone vs Tunisia
Guinea vs Niger
Sudan vs Ethiopia
Libyavs Algeria
Cote D'voire vs Senegal
DR Congo vs Equitorial Guinea
Gabon vs Togo
Central Africa vs Burkinafaso
The matches will be played over two legs, the first to take place on the weekend of September 7-9, with the second legs scheduled for the weekend of October 12-14. The 15 teams who emerge victorious from the ties will join hosts South Africa in the field for the Nations Cup which runs from January 19 to February 10 next year.  
 

Arsenal Postpones visit to Nigeria


For all expectant Arsenal fans in Nigeria and the and its environs, it is quite unfortunate that you won’t have that opportunity just yet to meet with the team this year. The club, Arsenal Football Club on Wednesday announced that it is reluctantly postponing its proposed trip to Nigeria this summer.

According to a statement released by the club the decision was taken as a result of complexities linked to the planned game against Nigeria on Saturday, August 5 in Abuja.

Arsenal marketing director Angus Kinnear said: "Bringing a top-level club to an international market is always complicated and logistically challenging. With the proposed match in Nigeria planned for early August, we could not get comfortable on everything needed to satisfy our requirements, so we have reluctantly taken the decision to postpone the team’s visit."

Kinnear continued: “We have a huge and loyal following in Africa, and we are sorry that the team will not be visiting this summer. However, we have a long-term commitment to Nigeria and we are already making plans for a visit next summer.

"In addition, we also have some exciting forthcoming activities planned with our commercial partners in Nigeria - Emirates, Airtel and Malta Guinness, which will kick off in the next few weeks.”

Emirates are the presenting partner of the Arsenal 2012 Tour and Boutros Boutros, divisional senior vice-president of corporate communications said: “Emirates shares Arsenal’s disappointment that the team’s visit to Nigeria has been postponed. We look forward to working with Arsenal to bring the Club closer to its loyal Nigerian fans through new initiatives over the coming months.”

Well and good, Arsenal remains the same but am sure it would have been to the delight of many to have them this year. Go Gunners!

Monday 2 July 2012

Money Talks: Euro clubs cash-in on Euros and UCL


More European soccer clubs have been promised a greater share of UEFA's billions in commercial income from the European Championship and Champions League.

According to AP (Kiev), UEFA says around 580 clubs from across Europe's 53 soccer nations will collect from a promised $127 million fund from Euro 2012 profits.

UEFA also announced a 22-percent increase in Champions League revenue, to $1.7 billion for each of the next three seasons.

The Euro 2012 deal that pays clubs a daily rate for releasing players is now extended to include qualifying matches.

UEFA says $76 million will be distributed for the finals tournament, and $51 million.

 Most represented club-country in the Euros
England
80
Germany
46
Spain
33
Italy
31
Russia
29
Ukraine
28
France
25
Greece
17
Netherlands
16
Portugal
12

Best represented domestic clubs in Euro 2012 quarterfinals
11 - Real Madrid (ESP 5, POR 3, GER 2, FRA 1)
9 - Bayern Munich (GER 8, FRA 1)
7 - FC Barcelona (ESP 7)
7 - Liverpool (ENG 6, ESP 1)
7 - Manchester City (ENG 3, FRA 2, ITA 1, ESP 1)
7 - Chelsea (ENG 2, ESP 2, CZE 1, FRA 1, POR 1)
7 - Juventus (ITA 7)

From the above table and analysis, It is quite obvious which teams/country will be highest beneficiaries of this largesse. Smile to the bank!

EURO 2012 Championship: "Boring" Spain indeed

Despite heavy criticism of the Spanish style of football, they went all the way to become the first European team to ever win three back-to-back international tournaments as they defended the European Championship with a comfortable 4-0 win over Italy thanks to goals from David Silva, Jordi Alba, Fernando Torres and Juan Mata in Kiev.

Some say they played a 4-6-0 formation that gives no place for the natural forward (striker), the midfield and and attack composed of midfielders who can fall into the place of a striker at any time, they play a tiki-taka pattern, knock the ball around, have the most completed passes, retain possession, what a philosophy!

Football is all about result, if the world will criticize a side that win matches, break and make records, win individual titles and become the best so be it.