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Fans Come Hard On Arsene Wenger After 10-2 Trashing

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7 years ago

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Arsenal
Arsenal       Arsene Wenger is under unprecedented pressure to end his storied 21-year tenure as Arsenal manager following their humiliating 10-2 aggregate defeat by Bayern Munich in the Champions League. Tuesday’s abject 5-1 defeat in the second leg was preceded by a fan protest and ended in front of swathes of empty red seats at the Emirates Stadium.
      Wednesday’s sports headlines spoke of “humiliation” and an “all-time low”, while the players who helped Wenger turn Arsenal into the superclub they are today said the time for change had finally come. “He looks like a lost man,” Ian Wright, Arsenal’s second-highest goal-scorer, said on BT Sport. “It just seems to be mounting up. You’ve got the fans, the protests. It’s imploding.”
     Though noisy, the pre-match protest was a low-key affair, attended by only around 200 fans, but the banners held and slogans chanted revealed the extent of the divisions within Arsenal’s fan base over Wenger. The protestors’ banners bore messages including “ENOUGH IS ENOUGH”, “STUBBORN. STALE. CLUELESS” and, in reference to the two-year deal for Wenger that is reportedly on the table, “NO NEW CONTRACT”. Some fans even chanted: “Arsene Wenger, you’re killing our club!”
     Wenger, 67, has said he will make an announcement about his future either this month or next. He is not thought to be under any pressure from above, with American majority shareholder Stan Kroenke said to be happy with Wenger given his repeated success in qualifying Arsenal for the Champions League. The retiring Kroenke, known as ‘Silent Stan’, was also the target of protests during the rout by Bayern, angry supporters urging him to “get out of our club”. But as Arsenal’s most successful manager, Wenger will be allowed to determine the timing and nature of his departure.
      While he refused to be drawn on his future in Tuesday’s post-match press conference, he gave an upbeat assessment of the club’s current health. “I think this club is in great shape, but we’re just going through a very difficult situation at the moment,” said the Frenchman. – Smirking Sanchez – The signs of stasis, however, have become impossible to ignore. Arsenal have gone out of the Champions League in the last 16 for the past seven seasons running and it is now 13 years since they last lifted the Premier League trophy. The signings of Mesut Ozil and Alexis Sanchez, coupled with back-to-back FA Cup successes in 2014 and 2015, hinted at a return to former glories, but the two players have come to symbolise the current malaise.
     Ozil has become a ghost-like figure, seemingly incapable of rising to the big occasion, and while Sanchez continues to produce the goods on the pitch, he is becoming problematic off it. The Chile forward was reported to have clashed with team-mates in training last week — reports Wenger denied — and was pictured supposedly smirking on the bench after being taken off against Bayern. Both he and Ozil are stalling over new contracts. Publicly, the players continue to put on a united front, with right-back Hector Bellerin declaring “the whole team is behind the manager”. But Britain’s football writers believe the Bayern embarrassment represented a thrashing too far in the story of Arsenal and Arsene.
     “Arsene Wenger must go” was The Sun’s stark verdict, while the Daily Mirror’s chief football writer John Cross, who published a biography of Wenger in 2015, said the Bayern rout “must represent the endgame”. With Arsenal having slipped out of the top four in the Premier League, and amid competition for places that is fiercer than ever, qualifying for the Champions League for a 19th successive season will be a battle. In the meantime, Arsenal return to the Emirates on Saturday for an FA Cup quarter-final against non-league Lincoln City. Wenger is chasing a record seventh triumph in the competition and, it seems increasingly likely, a glorious farewell.
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Juventus ordered to pay Ronaldo €9.7m unpaid salaries

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19 hours ago

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April 18, 2024 10:01 am

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Juventus must pay Portuguese star Cristiano Ronaldo 9.7 million euros ($10.4 million) in back wages for the 2020-21 season, the Italian courts announced on Wednesday.

The Court of Arbitration, to which Ronaldo appealed, “orders Juventus Turin to pay the sum of 9,774,166.66 euros”, plus interest and procedural costs, it stated in its decision.

The sum equates to the difference between the salary actually received by Ronaldo and that which he should have received after tax and other deductions.

Ronaldo, who spent three seasons in Italy with Juventus (2018-21) before joining Manchester United (2021-22) and then the Saudi club Al Nassr, was claiming 19.5 million euros but the arbitration panel reduced that by 50 per cent.

Contacted by AFP, Juventus declined to comment, but said it would be issuing a statement “shortly”.

According to the rankings drawn up by the American business magazine Forbes, the five-time Ballon d’Or winner was the world’s highest-paid sportsman in 2023, with $136 million, including $46 million in wages.

Juventus, who are listed on the stock exchange, recorded losses of 123.7 million euros in the 2022-23 financial year, which ran to the end of June, it announced in October.

No provision has been made in the accounts of Italian football’s most successful club, currently third in Serie A, for the payment of this wages backlog.

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Sports

EPL to adopt semi-automated offside technology next season

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6 days ago

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April 13, 2024 12:19 pm

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The English Premier League (EPL) says semi-automated offside technology will be used in matches from next season.

The league announced the decision in a statement on its website on Thursday.

The decision was made after a unanimous agreement by all the clubs at a Premier League Shareholders’ meeting.

The technology will be ready for use from the 2024/25 season after the autumn international breaks.

“The new system will be used for the first time in the Premier League next season, and it is anticipated the technology will be ready to be introduced after one of the autumn international breaks,” the statement reads.

“The technology will provide quicker and consistent placement of the virtual offside line, based on optical player tracking, and will produce high-quality broadcast graphics to ensure an enhanced in-stadium and broadcast experience for supporters.”

The first usage of the semi-automated offside technology in top-level football was at the 2022 World Cup in Qatar.

The offside rule has been subjected to change in recent years, with the video assistant referee (VAR) technology also deployed to assist the on-field officials in checking for offside calls leading to a goal.

The EPL further updated its offside rule in the summer of 2023 to include that “a player who is clearly offside should not become onside on every occasion when an opponent moves and touches the ball.”

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Nigerian chess master, Tunde Onakoya sets to break Guinness World Record

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6 days ago

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April 13, 2024 12:17 pm

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Nigerian chess master, Tunde Onakoya has revealed plans to break the Guinness World Record for the longest chess marathon.

Onakoya who made the plan known on his X account on Friday said that he is “doing this for the dreams of millions of children across Africa without access to education.”

He added that the attempt will hold on April 17th at the New York City’s Times Square and he is to play chess for 58 hours without a single defeat.

He wrote, “On the 17th of April 2024, I will attempt to break the Guiness World record for the longest Chess marathon in the heart of Times Square New York City for 58 hours without losing a game. Doing this for the dreams of millions of children across Africa without access to education.”

Onakoya disclosed that the attempt will start at 10am and would be available for all to stream on YouTube.

He appealed to Nigerians residing in New York, urging them to come forward and provide their enthusiastic support as he strives to establish a new world record.

Tunde Onakoya is renowned for his philanthropic efforts, notably utilizing chess as a tool to offer opportunities for young people residing in the marginalized areas, often referred to as ‘slums,’ within the country.

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Bodex F. Hungbo, SPMIIM is a multiple award-winning Nigerian Digital Media Practitioner, Digital Strategist, PR consultant, Brand and Event Expert, Tv Presenter, Tier-A Blogger/Influencer, and a top cobbler in Nigeria.

She has widespread experiences across different professions and skills, which includes experiences in; Marketing, Media, Broadcasting, Brand and Event Management, Administration and Management with prior stints at MTN, NAPIMS-NNPC, GLOBAL FLEET OIL AND GAS, LTV, Silverbird and a host of others

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