From Rag to Riches for The Foxes - Leicester City

The King Power Stadium

A club side's fate is very often than not vested with the managers. In rare instances however, when things start to get out of hand, the owners come in to rescue the situation. Such is the tale of the Foxes, Leicester City FC.
The Thai owners have performed excellently well to revive the club's fortune. They invested money realised through effective monopoly of Duty Free inThai Airports and have done well not to interfere in the running of the club.
A staggering £100m was converted into equity and repurchased the stadium. During this time, an average loss of £25m was absorbed annually for promotional purposes.

Gary Lineker led a consortium to save Leicester City from administration

 The rise to stardom
  The club's revenues usurped to a staggering £104m in the 2014/2015 season with a profit before tax of
£26m. This was in spite of a lower revenue generated through the sales of players. Wages' bill stood at £57m which was slightly above the suggested 50 per cent  of the share of turnover.

 71% of the income generated by the club from the Premier League was through television while its revenue from commercial activities was £20.1m. A small figure compared to those of top sides though it edged clubs like Sunderland, Stoke City, Crystal Palace and Southampton in this order.  

Apple agree multiyear partnership with the Major League Baseball to supply iPad

The Verge

Tech giant, Apple has struck a multiyear deal with the Major League Baseball. 

The company is expected to supply each MLB side with a 12.9 inches iPad Pro tablets with a customized application developed by the Advanced Media division of the MLB in conjunction with Apple.

Part of the deal also include the provision of expertise for MLB's coaching staff on the use of data analytics to improve performance of their playing staff. By so doing, the teams will be able to check performance statistics of past seasons and current season, establish spray charts of the hits and misses of the ball by players and watch clips of previous games.

MLB Commissioners said in the wake of the deal that it was timely with the lifting of ban by the MLB on the use of PCs, smartphones and tabs in the dugouts.

"We are not just replacing binders with tablets, we are actually helping them do things that weren't possible before," said Phil Schiller, Senior Vice President of Marketing in Apple

UCL Matchday 2 Preview

After the thrills of the Matchday 1 on Tuesday which saw former finalist Atletico Madrid dumped 1988 champions, PSV Eindhoven out on penalties, more interesting fixtures await us in the Champions League tonight.
Both Atletico and PSV had failed to find the back of the net in an enthralling encounter in the 2nd leg at the Vicente Calderon. With the aggregate score standing at 0 -0 after 210 minutes of football action plus extra time, a missed penalty by substitute Luciano Narsingh was all that separated both sides, 8 -7 the final scoreline on  the night.
Elsewhere, Manchester City and Ukranian giant, Dynamo Kyiv played out a goalless draw at the Etihad, a result which saw the Citizens progressed to the quarter final of the competition on a 3-1 aggregate. City had earlier won the first leg 3 -1 in Kiev weeks back.
Tonight, current holders, Barcelona host London side, Arsenal at the Camp Nou. The Catalan giant hold a two-nil first leg advantage courtesy of a Lionel Messi brace and the Gunners will be looking to upturn the deficit.

Messi celebrates vs Arsenal in the first leg

Barcelona have been in fine form this season, registering an impressive 37-match unbeaten streak in all competitions with the recent one, a 6-0 drubbing of Getafe in the La Liga. Arsenal on the other hand, have had only managed a draw and a win in their last five matches.
Team News Barcelona: Pique (suspended), Rafinha (knee)

Arsenal: Cech (calf), Wilshere (ankle), Rosicky (thigh), Cazorla (knee), Oxlade-Chamberlain (leg)

 

In Germany, 2013 champions, Bayern Munich host last season finalists, Juventus at the Allianz Arena. Both sides played out a 2 - 2 draw in the first leg in Italy.

Pranks: Carlos Vela spotted at a concert hours after claiming to be ill

Former Gunner, Carlos Vela landed himself in trouble this week with his La Liga side for telling lies.


The Real Sociedad forward reportedly called to inform his club that he was sick and won't be able to attend training this week. However, the Mexican's claim was nullified through facebook after being spotted at the Chris Brown concert in Madrid alongside Atletico winger, Antoine Griezmann

Sociedad manager, Eusebio Sacristan has since reacted to the incident by deciding that the player must now train by himself.

Further claims by AS also revealed that that Carlos Vela has been fined a club-record sum.

The club skipper, Xabi Prieto responded to the incident by making the following statements to the press: 

"[The coach] has decided Vela will not train and as a group we respect the decision.

It is surprising when a teammate does not come to training. It was not taken well in the dressing room and we have told him that.

We spoke to [Vela] and the first thing he did was show us his regret. If he could turn back time he would not do it again."

Sociedad are currently ninth in the La Liga standing.