Wednesday's Rich B*ll*x

[Chinners]

RICH BOLLOX
Cristiano Ronaldo banks the biggest salary in world football - with Emmanuel Adebayor the top earner in the Premier League.
Portuguese marketing agency Futebol Finance has published a list of the top 50 footballer's salaries this season.
And Real Madrid star Ronaldo, who moved from Manchester United for a world record transfer of £80million, is on top of the pile with a basic gross salary of £11.3million. That sum, which is over £217,000 a week, is without without bonuses and outside earnings.
Barcelona's Zlatan Ibrahimovic, who also moved to Spain last summer, is second on £10.4million followed by his team-mate Lionel Messi and former Barca star Samuel Eto'o.
Adebayor (£7.4million) and Carlos Tevev (£7million) are the two biggest earners in the Premier League after transferring to the world's richest club last summer.
In the top eight, only Lionel Messi did not switch clubs last year.
England stars John Terry, Frank Lampard and Steven Gerrard are next on the list according to the survey.
Barcelona pays the most salaries of any club to players in the top 50 ahead of Real Madrid. But of the £281.9million earned by the top 50, the Premier League has the most big earners with £111.4million.
Last year, a survey by France Football named David Beckham as the top-earning footballer in the world for the fifth time with his off-field activities pushing his income to £32.4million last year.

Futebol Finance's 50 highest paid players in world football
1 Cristiano Ronaldo (Real Madrid, £11.3million)
2 Zlatan Ibrahimovic (Barcelona, £10.4million)
3 Lionel Messi (Barcelona, £9.1million)
4 Samuel Eto'o (Internazionale, £9.1million)
5 Kaka (Real Madrid, £8.7million)
6 Emmanuel Adebayor (Manchester City, £7.4million)
7 Karim Benzema (Real Madrid, £7.4million)
8 Carlos Tevez (Manchester City, £7million)
9 John Terry (Chelsea, £6.5million)
10 Frank Lampard (Chelsea, £6.5million)
11 Thierry Henry (Barcelona, £6.5million)
12 Xavi (Barcelona, £6.5million)
13 Ronaldinho (AC Milan, £6.5million)
14 Steven Gerrard (Liverpool, £6.5million)
15 Daniel Alves (Barcelona, £6.1million)
16 Michael Ballack (Chelsea, £5.6million)
17 Raul (Real Madrid, £5.6million)
18 Rio Ferdinand (Manchester United, £5.6million)
19 Kolo Toure (Manchester City, £5.6million)
20 Wayne Rooney (Manchester United, £5.2million)
21 Robinho (Manchester City, £5.2million)
22 Iker Casillas (Real Madrid, £5.2million)
23 Victor Valdez (Barcelona, £5.2million)
24 Frederic Kanoute (Sevilla, £5.2million)
25 Deco (Chelsea, £5.2million)
26 Didier Drogba (Chelsea, £4.8million)
27 Gianluigi Buffon (Juventus, £4.8million)
28 Francesco Totti (Roma, £4.8million)
29 Luca Toni (Roma, £4.8million)
30 David Villa (Valencia, £4.8million)
31 Arjen Robben (Bayern Munich, £4.8million)
32 Bastian Schweinsteiger (Bayern Munich, £4.8million)
33 Ashley Cole (Chelsea, £4.8million)
34 Fernando Torres (Liverpool, £4.8million)
35 Gareth Barry (Manchester City, £4.8million)
36 Patrick Vieira (Internazionale, £4.8million)
37 Charles Puyol (Barcelona, £4.3million)
38 Andres Iniesta (Barcelona, £4.3million)
39 Sergio Aguero (Atletico Madrid, £4.3million)
40 Andreas Pirlo (AC Milan, £4.3million)
41 Willy Sagnol (Bayern Munich, £4.3million)
42 Frank Ribery (Bayern Munich, £4.3million)
43 David Beckham (AC Milan, £4.3million)
44 Wayne Bridge (Manchester City, £4.3million)
45 Lassana Diarra (Real Madrid, £4.3million)
46 Dimitar Berbatov (Manchester United £4.1million)
47 Andrei Arshavin (Arsenal, £4.1million)
48 Nicolas Anelka (Chelsea, £4.1million)
49 Ryan Giggs (Manchester United £4.1million)
50 Alessandro Del Piero (Juventus, £4.1million)

MANCHESTER CITY and Chelsea are on red alert after Seville striker Luis Fabiano refused to rule out a big-money move to the Premier League.
The Brazilian has been linked with a £15million switch to England having impressed in Spain.
Fabiano has formed a solid partnership with former Spurs and West Ham striker Fredi Kanoute and boasts eight goals in 12 games.
But Seville may find it difficult to turn down a big-money offer in the summer.
City have cash to spend and boss Roberto Mancini is keen to bring in another top striker to replace Robinho, who looks set to leave the club for good [/u]at the end of the season.
Chelsea chief Carlo Ancelotti is also eager to give Didier Drogba and Nicolas Anelka some competition at Stamford Bridge.
Fabiano, 29, said: "I have a year left on my contract and am happy at Seville.
"But things can change very quickly.
"I do not want to speak about my future at the moment because we are just thinking about the Champions League and the Spanish league where we still have a lot to play for."

Official site gets into B*ll*x
http://www.mcfc.co.uk/News/What-the-pap ... -the-ranks

TRANSFER BOLLOX
Nadir Belhadj is an unlikely target for Barcelona after the Portsmouth defender was singled out for praise from Barca midfielder Xavi Fernandes. Daily Mirror

AC Milan will use striker Klaas Jan Huntelaar as bait to land Manchester United's wantaway defender Nemanja Vidic. Daily Mirror

Arsenal midfielder Andrey Arshavin says he would understand if team-mate Cesc Fabregas leaves the Gunners for Barcelona in the summer, but hopes the midfielder will stay at the Emirates. Daily Mail

WAG OF THE DAY

http://www.thespoiler.co.uk/index.php/2 ... a-lozanova

OTHER BOLLOX
Crystal Palace boss Neil Warnock will ask the FA to take into account the stress he is under working for a club in administration when investigating the comments he made about assistant referee Trevor Massey after the FA Cup match against Aston Villa last Sunday. Warnock labelled Massey a "disgrace" after the decision to wrongly award Villa a corner from which they scored a late equaliser at Selhurst Park. Daily Mirror

Former Crystal Palace striker Ian Wright says he would be tempted to return to Selhurst Park as a coach if Ron Noades takes over the cash-strapped Championship club. The Sun

Wolves chairman Steve Morgan believes Liverpool would be debt-free had his 2004 bid for the Merseysiders been accepted. The Times

West Ham co-owner David Sullivan has offered Birmingham chief Carson Yeung £500,000 to end their dispute - but the Hong Kong billionaire has rejected it. Daily Mirror

Hull manager Phil Brown is ready to gamble on midfielder Jimmy Bullard to play in his side's crunch relegation clash at West Ham on Saturday. Daily Mirror

Liverpool's Glen Johnson has won every major trophy with the Reds - on Championship Manager. The right back has become a big fan of the computer game while recovering from his knee injury. "I'm sick of TV now," he admits. "When you're confined to the couch you'll look at anything. Thankfully, Championship Manager got me through."Daily Mail

Queens Park Rangers are on the verge of signing reality TV star Hicham Abdellah. The 17-year-old striker has made it through to the semi-finals of Football's Next Star, whose winner gets a place at the Inter Milan academy.

FINAL BOLLOX
£50 million Investment For Manchester Schools To End Cycles of Disadvantages And Drive Improvement
The cash comes from the Greater Manchester City Challenge programme to secure significant improvements in education for the region’s 600,000 children and young people.
By the end of the programme, Greater Manchester City Challenge hopes to achieve:
• a sharp drop in underperforming schools, particularly focusing on English and mathematics
• more outstanding schools and colleges
• significant improvements in educational outcomes for disadvantaged children and young people
The Greater Manchester Challenge programme aims to share the best practice that already exists in schools across the region and find innovative methods and local solutions to break the cycle of disadvantage and educational underachievement

[john@staustell]

Kolo Toure gets more than Shrek. LOL I bet Wayne and Colleen wont be happy reading that!

[Chinners]

Noel B*ll*x
[youtube]4LqAkIIsvVc[/youtube]

Cricket B*ll*x
Abu Dhabi dismisses talk of Manchester City and the IPLLalit Modi, the IPL commissioner, suggested "a very famous" British football club was interested in a team franchise. Photograph: Matt Dunham/AP
If Sheikh Mansour, the owner of ­Manchester City, really is about to bid for an Indian Premier League franchise then no one has wind of it at Abu Dhabi cricket club. The "phenomenal interest" in the two new franchises claimed by Lalit Modi, the IPL commissioner, is conspicuous by its absence at the Sheikh Zayed stadium.
Modi suggested that "a very famous football club in the UK" is interested in bidding for one of the two franchises. Manchester City dismissed speculation that they are involved but conceded that this did not automatically rule out interest from Mansour or another member of the Emirates royal family.
Even that possibility is waved away in Abu Dhabi, however, where it is assumed that Mansour would only be interested in staging games in the Emirates, not supporting one of the 12 bidding cities in India.
Dilawar Mani, Abu Dhabi cricket club's chief executive, said: "There has been no formal presentation or approach that I am aware of. We are not going to recommend anything to any member of the Royal family unless we have studied the concept in full detail, and understood whether it makes sense.
"It is too short a time. We haven't had any proposal at this point. I would suggest that anyone who is interested in pursuing this should come to the Abu Dhabi CC in the first place. We have a board of directors here who are very successful business people and who are highly qualified to decide whether such a proposal should be taken forward or not."
The list of bidding Indian cities is not the most salubrious, being the sort of places that make up an England one-day itinerary when Modi wants to teach Giles Clarke a lesson: Ahmedabad, Nagpur, Kanpur, Dharamsala, Indore, Cuttack, Gwalior, Visakapatnam, Rajkot, Pune, Vadodara and Kochi. Bidding for the franchise starts at US$225m (£142m), roughly double what Mansour has spent on ­Manchester City. The two new ones will be announced on 8 March.
Mani, brother of Ehsan Mani, a former International Cricket Council president, said that Abu Dhabi's prime interest is in staging the Champions League world club Twenty20. They had made a bid to stage the tournament in September.
"But as far as IPL is concerned, I still see that as an Indian domestic tournament rather than one that is taken out to different countries, but should we be approached we would welcome it," he said. "We are in a great time zone with multiple venues. Should there be a commercially viable proposal on a T20 format then of course we would be interested."
Modi also indicated that cities such as Rajkot, Pune, Vadodara and Kochi, which are in the process of building stadiums, may bid for IPL teams in future.
The new franchisees will be granted access to venues hosting matches during this year's IPL series, the third, which begins on 12 March.

[carolina-blue]

Wagalicious .

It still amazes me when I see it in black and white just how much players are paid nowadays .

[john68]

Wagalicious .

It still amazes me when I see it in black and white just how much players are paid nowadays .

You want to see howe much it is when it's in colour Mate...Wooooooo!!!

[ENIAM NAM]

Plenty of scope to improve Ribery's and Villa's lifestyles!!

[craigmcfc]

Top Wag today Chinners, pleasant viewing after a days work

[Michael Brookes]

Best WAG ever?

[MaineRoadMemories]

Kolo Toure gets more than Shrek. LOL I bet Wayne and Colleen wont be happy reading that!

If Rooney keeps on his current form then come next season he will want parity with Ronaldo's wages. They won't be able to afford him.