Manchester City top Madrid and Barca as kings of world sports salaries

A new study has claimed that the Premier League giants are the globe's biggest paymasters, outstripping Real Madrid and Barcelona

Manchester City players are the best-paid sportsmen in the world, according to a new survey.

The English League Cup winners came in top of Sporting Intelligence's 2014 Global Sports Salaries Survey, with their first-team squad members reported to earn an average annual wage of €5,864,675 over the course of 2013-14. Real Madrid are football's second highest paymasters, paying their players almost €5.5m per year on average, while Barcelona come third with a mean first-team salary of just under €5.4m.

Know the Franchise Owners of IPL-style ISL

INDIAN SUPER LEAGUE: Two former cricket captains, Bollywood stars and some of the top Indian businessmen Sunday bagged the franchise rights for the eight-city inaugural Indian Super League (ISL) football tournament that will be played during September-November.

I cannot work with players punished for fixing: Latif

KARACHI: Former Pakistan cricket captain Rashid Latif said on Tuesday he turned down the job of national chief selector because he could not work with ex-players tainted by corruption.
The 45-year-old, who famously blew the whistle on match-fixing in 1994 and 1995, last week refused to take up the chief selector's post with the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB).
Corruption, match-fixing and spot-fixing allegations have dogged Pakistani cricket for two decades and Latif said he could not work with tarnished ex-pros.
“I have my principles, which do not allow me to work with players who were punished for match-fixing in the past,” Latif told AFP.

Six Pakistan-India series on the cards

Pakistan is hoping to play at least six series against India as part of a deal apparently struck at the recently concluded International Cricket Council (ICC) Board Meeting, a report by Cricinfo says.
Pakistan cricket chief Najam Sethi said on Friday his country will get eight years of series, including archrivals India, earning $300 million, after agreeing to the revamp of the game's governing body.
Pakistan had opposed changes to the International Cricket Council (ICC) which hand the majority of powers and revenues to the “big three” of international cricket, India, Australia and England.
The suggested reforms were approved by majority (eight out of 10 countries in favour) at the ICC Board meeting in February, during which Pakistan and Sri Lanka abstained from voting.

Liverpool 3-2 Manchester City

The Reds took a huge step towards a first Premier League title with a confident performance at Anfield, though the visitors made them work after equalising from two goals down

Liverpool took a huge step towards their Premier League title dream with a 3-2 victory over Manchester City on an emotional day at Anfield.

Philippe Coutinho's late strike took Brendan Rodgers' side seven points clear of the visitors, who had hit back to level things up at 2-2 after falling two goals behind in the first half
The hosts looked to be easing to a 10th consecutive Premier League triumph on Sunday after goals from Raheem Sterling and Martin Skrtel capped a dominant first-half showing.

With City having been robbed of the Yaya Toure's services in between those two strikes due to injury, Manuel Pellegrini's woes were mounting.

Debate: Which Clasico superstar would be missed more – Ronaldo or Messi?

With the Portuguese set to skip Wednesday's Copa del Rey final, we ask if the Ballon d'Or holder is more important to Los Blancos than his Argentine rival is to Barcelona

DEBATEBy Mark Doyle & Chris Myson

Will he or won't he? With Cristiano Ronaldo currently struggling with a thigh problem, Real Madrid boss Carlo Ancelotti has to decide whether to risk the fitness of his most important player in Wednesday's Copa del Rey final against Barcelona. It would be a huge gamble on the part of the Italian coach.

Premier League Team of the Week: Hazard stars in Liverpool-dominated XI

he weekend's action got off to a blistering start at Anfield, where Liverpool thrashed Arsenal 5-1, so unsurprisingly it is the Reds who contribute the most players to our latest Premier League Team of the Week, with five selections in total.