World's richest man (with the most awesome name) buys into Mexican soccer.

"I don't always buy soccer teams, but when I do I buy Mexicano."

Via ESPNDeportes-Billionaire Carlos Slim, called the world's richest man from 2010-2012 by Forbes magazine, waded into Mexican league soccer this week with the official announcement that he would acquire a 30-percent stake in Grupo Pachuca, which owns the teams of Pachuca and Leon.

On Thursday the league held a press conference in Mexico City to announce TV transmission rights in Mexico for the Leon home games, which will be via UnoTV, the news and video channel Slim owns. It is anticipated that next year, once Pachuca's contract with competitor TV Azteca ends, that the team will follow Leon's suit.

Slim's phone company, America Movil SAB, started the online news service, UnoTV, earlier this year, with a focus on Guadalajara, Mexico's second largest city.

"We feel very honored to have our new board member with us," said Grupo Pachuca president Jesus Martinez via press release.

Analysts speculate that Slim and his family have no interest in owning a professional soccer team, or they would have invested long ago. Mexican soccer analysts believe the move was done to provide Slim with content for his media venture.

Slim and America Movil are currently locked in a battle with TV companies Televisa and TV Azteca, both of whom are claiming that America Movil needs a government license to offer video programming over the America Movil phone network. Slim, meanwhile, has insisted that while he can't offer cable service, he needs no permit to produce video for the internet.

The permits, however, have not proceeded even though Mexico's FCC (Cofetel) granted its recommendation or 'default affirmation' to allow the phone company to provide services of restricted television.

Photo: © Zuma Press

Zenit: Nani wage demands "unreal".

"No really dude. Get out of here while you can. Trust me!"

Via ESPN-Zenit St Petersburg's talks with Manchester United winger Nani collapsed due to the Portuguese winger's "unreal" wage demands, according to Daily Mail reports.

Big-spending Zenit director-general Maxim Mitrofanov said his team did not come close to agreeing personal terms with the 25-year-old, even after United chiefs expressed their willingness to part with Nani.

Zenit recently acquired Brazil forward Hulk and Belgium midfielder Axel Witsel for a combined $101 million.The Russian transfer window closed on Thursday.


"If Hulk had demanded €8 million to €10 million a year, these conditions would have been unacceptable for Zenit," Mitrofanov told the Daily Mail. "The transfer of Nani failed mostly due to this reason, as he asked for an enormous salary and we would not pay him."

The Portugal international did not enjoy the best of starts to the new Premier League season, turning in a poor display at Everton that saw him subbed and then dropped from the next game.

"'It's true we are negotiating for Nani and [Joao] Moutinho, but Hulk and Witsel were our top priorities," The Daily Mail quoted Zenit's Maxim Mitrofanov as saying.

The collapse of the deal leaves Nani in limbo at United, with the club's desire to offload him suggesting he may struggle to force his way back into Sir Alex Ferguson's first-team plans. It is reported that his agent had been demanding a £130,000-per-week deal to keep his client in Manchester.

Meanwhile, Zenit also failed in their bid to bring Arsenal's Andrei Arshavin to St Petersburg in the hours before the Russian transfer window slammed shut on Thursday night, leaving the winger out in the cold for club and country after he was dropped by new Russia boss Fabio Capello.

Scunthorpe manager almost killed by a squirrel....No I didn't make that up.

Not the offending squirrel in question but this is what I imagine it looked like.

Via Sky Sports-Scunthorpe manager Alan Knill has revealed he narrowly escaped serious injury following a squirrel-related cycling accident.

Knill faced boos and calls for his head at the end of Tuesday night's home defeat to Notts County in the Johnstone's Paint Trophy - which took the Iron's losing run to six matches in all competitions - but he insists the League One club's difficult start to the season has been put into perspective.

Knill was out riding his bike on Monday when he collided with a squirrel. Unable to dodge the animal, it got caught up in his wheel spokes and sent the manager flying over his handlebars.

"It was quite serious at the time, I was flying through the air," Knill, who escaped with just cuts and bruises, told the BBC following the loss to Notts County. "I came off my bike at 20-whatever miles an hour, an ambulance was called and everything - I could have died.

"I saw it run into the road but couldn't do anything about it and it just hit my wheel and stuck in my wheel and hit my brakes. I went over the top of my bike and landed on my head, shoulder and neck.

Knill added: "I'm worrying every night about football, but I could have been dead on Monday and it's so stupid. I'm not and you have to put things into perspective. The situation we're in at the moment, I don't cherish and I don't like being in, but there are worse situations



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It's the soccer related sex tape you didn't know you wanted to see

Via FOX Soccer-Spanish and Latin American outlets are reporting that a sex tape involving singer Shakira and Barcelona star defender Gerard Pique is being shopped.

Rumors about the tape have swirled for weeks — and representatives for Shakira have repeatedly denied its existence, but Spanish magazine Intervieu reports that a Barcelona talent agent was offered the tape for sale.

According to the magazine, the talent agent claims: “The video lasts about 15 minutes….it’s filmed with a cell phone, which I guess, belonged to Shakira’s employee who was at the helm of the boat that night. The images are not steady and it’s out of focus.”

Mexico’s TV Notas also reported that the tape was made by one of Shakira’s employees, who is using it to blackmail the singer.

The woman who famously sang “Hips Don’t Lie” has been the subject of sex tape rumors before. Tapes of her and former beaus Antonia de la Rua and Alejando Sanz purportedly exist, though no images have ever come to light.

Former employees recently sued the Colombian singer in the past, claiming she fired them for failing to prepare her food in the middle of the night. Shakira's lawyer Ezequiel A. Camerini refuted the claims to Colombia's newspaper El Espectador.

"There is clear evidence of intentions to defame and cause harm to my client by taking advantage of her public persona and spotless personal reputation in exchange for money."

HuffPost Voces recently confirmed that Shakira and Pique are expecting a baby in January.


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EPL talks about possible financial controls

Via PA-Premier League chairmen will be presented Thursday with a range of possible financial controls to limit spending by top-flight clubs.

The league's top executives have produced a discussion paper on financial controls for the chairmen to consider which could eventually lead to clubs being forced to break even every year -- or face sanctions.

It would mean a serious blow to clubs such as Manchester City and Chelsea who have returned significant losses in recent years.

There is strong support at other clubs for such controls -- Wigan chairman Dave Whelan on Wednesday said measures to cut spending were needed urgently, while Manchester United originally sparked the move at the league's meeting earlier in the summer.

No decision will be made on any measures Wednesday -- instead two groups of 10 clubs, each with clubs mixed up to reflect size and region, are to be formed to discuss the options in more detail.

Whelan's own club Wigan have also operated at a loss -- the Latics returned a net loss for the year ending May 2011 of £7.2million ($11.45 million) -- but even he is in favor of the controls.

Whelan told the Press Association: "This proposal has come from Manchester United -- I think City haven shaken them up a little bit -- but I think there should be some controls on spending. "Some clubs are spending way more than they can afford and get into trouble -- look at Portsmouth.

"The Premier League is so big and powerful and there is so much money around that the clubs try and chase it. Something has to be done so we will support these measures."

United's chief executive David Gill has been one of the driving forces behind European clubs accepting UEFA's financial fair play rules for clubs in the Champions League and Europa League to only spend what they earn, and he wants the Premier League to follow suit.

The Football League have also introduced a similar system into the Championship and Gill believes the top flight should bring in similar measures.

Gill said last week: "A lot of clubs would be happy just to introduce the financial fair play regulations into the Premier League now, some wouldn't, but that's a debate that has to have happened. And it will happen.

"If you look at it we've got financial regulations in the league below us, the Championship, and the competition above us, the Champions League, so we need to do it.

"The Premier League being the best league in the world, the most commercially effective league in the world, I think there's a real opportunity to introduce some sensible rules that effectively improve and enhance the long term or medium term financial stability."

At least 12 of the 20 top-flight clubs ended the 2010-11 season in the red with Manchester City's losses of £197 million ($313.4 million) dwarfing even Chelsea's £68 million ($108.2 million) and Liverpool's £49 million ($77.9 million).

Critics of financial fair rules argue that it will forever favor those clubs such as Manchester United and Arsenal who make a profit and rule out wealthy benefactors such as Roman Abramovich and Sheikh Mansour putting money into clubs.

Not even Arsenal players understand Arsenal anymore

Via Press Association-Arsenal defender Bacary Sagna feels the sales of captain Robin van Persie and midfielder Alex Song have left "a lot of questions."

The France fullback is currently recovering from a broken leg and could be in contention to return by the start of next month.

Sagna believes seeing the Gunners lose two of their key men in quick succession before the start of the new campaign makes no sense.

Speaking to L'Equipe, Sagna said: "Everyone was expecting Robin Van Persie to leave, but Alex Song, that was a surprise. I don't understand that at all. It is a big loss for the club.

"When you see two of the best players from last season leave, you ask a lot of questions. I understand why the supporters are nervous."

Sagna, 29, signed from Auxerre four years ago, and in that time has seen several of his team-mates leave -- including duo Gael Clichy and Samir Nasri, who went on to win the Premier League title with Manchester City last season.

He continued: "I am the only starting player left from 2007. In May, I watched City's parade on TV. I saw Samir and Gael lift the trophy. I want that [feeling]."

The France defender will be heading into the final year of his current deal at the end of the season, and maintains as yet there has been no talk over an extension.

He said: "For the moment, I want to play with Arsenal, and find my level again."

Despite the loss of Van Persie, who netted a hat-trick for Manchester United at Southampton last weekend, and Song, who joined Barcelona, Arsenal has opened the new domestic campaign brightly.

Summer signings Lukas Podolski and Santi Cazorla both opened their accounts in the 2-0 win at Liverpool, which was a third clean sheet.

Captain Thomas Vermaelen believes new assistant manager Steve Bould has made a big impact on the Gunners rearguard. (ed note: tee-hee rearguard tee-hee)

Speaking to Sky Sports News, the Belgian said: "He has a lot of experience at a high level with Arsenal. We work a lot on our defensive play and you can see that with our three clean sheets."

Vermaelen is away on international duty with Belgium ahead of the World Cup qualifiers with Wales and Croatia, but played down concerns over a minor ankle problem, which forced him off in the closing stages at Anfield.

Meanwhile, midfielder Andrey Arshavin has been linked with a move back to Russia with Dynamo Moscow ahead of their transfer deadline, but is understood to be determined to force his way into the Arsenal first-team again.


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Athletico turns down four teams offers for Falcao....is still broke.

The Columbian Tim Tebow? Nah...Falcao is talented.

Via ESPN-Atletico Madrid chief executive Miguel Angel Gil Marin revealed Wednesday that he rebuffed interest from four clubs -- including Chelsea and Manchester City -- in Falcao this summer, and conceded the financial inequality in La Liga means it is inevitable that he will be sold sooner rather than later.

Gil Marin called on the Spanish footballing authorities to make sweeping structural changes to prevent the duopoly of Barcelona and Real Madrid from becoming more dominant and preventing La Liga's smaller clubs from holding on to their top talent.

Falcao, 26, is Europe's hottest striker after his hat trick on Friday inspired his club to a 4-1 demolition of Chelsea which secured it the European Super Cup.

And Gil Marin believes Atletico, about $441 million in debt, made a risky decision not to accept any offers for the Colombia striker.

"You only have to look at what happened this summer," he said. "Apart from Athletic and ourselves, everyone has had to sell big names because they needed to survive in the current environment of bankruptcy. A French club [PSG], a Russian [Anzhi] and two English [Chelsea and Man City] came for Falcao and he stayed because we took a risk we would be able to make our payments."

Gil Marin's revelation came to light Wednesday as Radamel Falcao's father claimed the Atletico star dreamed of playing for fierce rival Real as a boy.

Quoted in Marca, Radamel Garcia told Colombian radio programme 'En Gran debate de Todelar': "His dream is to play for Real Madrid. Since he was a boy, he's always wanted to play there. Other teams in Europe like Chelsea and Manchester City were interested in him."

On Thursday, Falcao seemingly rebutted his father's statement, sending out this tweet: "So it is clear: My dream is to keep winning titles with Athletic and to qualify Colombia for the World Cup."

The free-scoring Colombian made an instant impression at the Vicente Calderon since joining from Porto last season, scoring 39 goals in all competitions as the Rojiblancos lifted the Europa League trophy in Bucharest.

"If he can't play for Real Madrid, he'll play for a team in England," Garcia said. "Of course he wants to go to the 2014 World Cup, but most of all, he wants to go to Real Madrid."

Gil Marin, the son of controversial former Atletico president Jesus Gil y Gil, predicts that clubs such as Atletico without mega-rich owners inevitably would be unable to hold onto players of Falcao's quality.

"With the arrival of the people from Qatar, Abu Dhabi or Russia, the ten or 15 top players can ask for whatever they want," he said. "They will play in China, at Paris St Germain or at Manchester City. The players, in the end always think that their careers are short. In three years there will be no great players in La Liga, except those at Madrid and Barcelona."

The Madrid and Barcelona domination of La Liga stems from the unfair distribution of TV revenues in Spain which sees the smaller clubs receive significantly less, unlike an equal share deal between clubs seen in leagues such as the Premier League.

"The structure must be changed so that 18 clubs do not have to live on the leftovers," Gil Martin said. "I am sure that Madrid and Barcelona will again finish 30 points ahead of the third placed team. A competition where one team gets 100 points from 114 is ill."

Gil Marin, whose family controls Atletico along with club president Enrique Cerezo, despite years of fans protests and a legal judgement against them, said that a new form of club ownership was required to fix the deep problems within Spanish football.

"Spanish football has lived through three stages," he said. "The first was marked by a lack of regulation. With the arrival of 'sporting limited companies' (in 1990) individuals like my father, Manuel Ruiz de Lopera (at Betis) and others came to prominence. Now we need to find a scenario which brings order and solvency.

Atletico proposes we take the best of other models, from America, England and most of all Germany, and get away from what we have, where only Madrid and Barcelona are important and the others have just become anecdotes."

Information from Press Association and reporter Dermot Corrigan was used in this report.

Man U and Santos both report that there is nothing to report.

It's Neymar's baby mamma Fernanda Borroso

Via ESPN-Santos have rejected claims that Manchester United launched an audacious £38 million deadline day bid for Brazil international forward Neymar, a statement the English club themselves have confirmed.

United did bolster their squad on the final day of the summer transfer window last Friday, after bringing in a number of players earlier in the summer. However, reports on Wednesday claimed that was not for the want of trying.

The Sun reported that Sir Alex Ferguson made a huge late bid for Neymar, 20, in an attempt to lure him to England. Yet sources inside United rubbished the claims, while the striker's club have also dismissed the report.

"I have no idea where that [story] came from, but it's not true," Santos' football director Felipe Faro told Globo Esporte.

Neymar's future has long been the subject of widespread speculation, with both Barcelona and Real Madrid prematurely reported to have agreed a transfer deal at different points over the last few seasons.

Neymar's father, Neymar Santos, showed a certain weariness with all the speculation, noting about the latest rumours: "Neymar was sold two years ago but we are still here. He is ready to play football. We talked a lot and the fields are the same worldwide. Of course he needs to develop. We made the choice that he will mature in Brazil.

"He will inevitably go to Europe someday, but for now he is happy in Brazil."

Del Piero signs a deal for a club.....in Australia??

Via ESPN-A-League side Sydney FC have signed Alessandro Del Piero on a two-year deal, the Juventus legend has confirmed.

Del Piero, 37, announced the move at a press conference in Turin on Wednesday, however news of the proposed deal hit the headlines last week.

The delay in confirmation was caused by Liverpool's late interest in the forward, according to Sydney chief executive Tony Pignata, but the Reds have since dismissed the claim as "nonsense".

"Liverpool have come in - and they're a big club, there's no denying that,'' Pignata told Fox Sports Australia. "But I think the attraction of Australia might sway us."

Del Piero, who turns 38 in November, will join a list of former stars to have joined the A-League late into their career that includes the likes of Robbie Fowler, Romario, Juninho and Dwight Yorke.

"It is a special day for me," Del Piero said. "I'm happy to announce that I have signed agreement with Sydney for the next two years.

"I'm happy to begin this adventure and I want to thank all the teams that I have talked to," he said. "There was no better option than this, thank you Sydney FC and everyone in Australia."

Del Piero, who began his career with Padova, made 91 appearances for Italy and is the all-time leading goalscorer for Juventus.



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Usain Bolt to play for Man U after all?? Fergie says...maybe.

Via ESPNFC-Sir Alex Ferguson might not be signing Usain Bolt, but he is ready to let the sprinting superstar loose on Real Madrid.

Ferguson told Inside United magazine on Wednesday that he would consider inviting Bolt to play in next year's Real Madrid Legends match.

A lifelong Manchester United fan, Bolt has already been to Old Trafford since his triple gold medal-winning exploits, telling the crowd ahead of last month's 3-2 win over Fulham that they needed to persuade Ferguson to sign him.


"He's been to Carrington a couple of times and he did help Ronaldo with his sprinting," Ferguson told Inside United.

"He's a bit of a character and a big United fan.

"But it's interesting he says he would like to play in a charity game.

"It could be brilliant, and next year, when we play Real Madrid's Legends again, there could be opportunities to bring him in and see how he does."

Ferguson certainly owes Bolt a favor after he took a rather personal interest in the Jamaican's stellar performances at London 2012.

"I must thank him because that was my biggest bet," he said.

"Bolt was 4/5 to win each of them, the 100m and 200m, a week before the tournament started.

"It was a brilliant bet. I couldn't believe it.

"He's the fastest man in the world and the others would have to have taken half a second off their running to beat him.

"He is phenomenal."

Information from Press Association was used in this report.