The Ten Richest Sporting Events In The World

Ever doubt that soccer is king in the sporting world? Here’s a simple way to prove it: follow the money.

In this the second annual Forbes list of the 10 highest-paying sporting events in the world, four of the top ten spots are occupied by soccer tournaments. No other sport comes close to its dominance.

To construct this list, we focused on the prize money paid out to the winner of either a single event or a tournament. We did not include an event’s total prize money, or any season-long competitions that do not end in a playoff tournament, like the Barclays Premier League.

The list:

1.       UEFA Champions League

Soccer

$77 million

The most prestigious club soccer tournament in the world pays like it. The English side, Chelsea, beat Bayern Munich for the title this year, behind the head and foot of striker, Didier Drogba. Teams are paid for a) qualifying for the Champions League b) games they win during the tournament and c) for the size of their market. The latter is one reason why Chelsea made $33 million more than last year’s winner, Barcelona.

2.       UEFA European Football Championship

Soccer

$33 million

Some claim that the quality of this tournament—which features only European national teams—is on par with the World Cup. Money-wise, it’s a bit better. Spain won in 2008. The 2012 tournament, starting June 8, will be held in Poland and the Ukraine. Total prize money had risen to $246 million, up from $230 million in 2008.

3.       FIFA World Cup

Soccer

$31 million

One might think the most prestigious soccer tournament in the world—and perhaps the most prestigious sports tournament in the world, period—would offer the most prize money to its winner. It doesn’t. But the spoils aren’t bad at all. Spain also won this title, in 2010.

4.       The Super Bowl

Football

$15.5 million

Quarterback Eli Manning led the New York Giants to thrilling 21-17 victory over the New England Patriots in February. Each of the Giants took home $172,000. Players on teams are paid for wins in the playoffs, as well, which is part of this total. The Giants scored because they started as wild cards.

5.       The World Series

Baseball

$14.8 million

The St. Louis Cardinals beat the Texas Rangers in seven games last October. Cardinals players each received $323,169 for their efforts.

6.       FedEx Cup

Golf

$10 million

The four-event PGA Tour playoffs include the Barclays and ends with the Tour Championship, sponsored by Coca-Cola. The top 125 players on the Tour qualify initially. From there the field is whittled down to 30 players. The man who accumulates the most points during the four-tournament stretch wins the FedEx Cup—and an astounding $10 million check. Bill Haas did even better last year, winning the Tour Championship and the FedEx Cup, pocketing $11.4 million along the way.

7.       The Dubai World Cup Night

Horse Racing

$10 million

The winner of horse-racing’s richest crown was a horse—Monterosso—owned by a prince named Hamdan bin Mohammed bin Rashid al Maktoum, who happens to be the son of the founder of the race.

8.       UEFA Europa League

Soccer

$9 million

Once known as simply “the UEFA Cup,” this tournament is billed as the second most-prestigious club tournament in the world, after the Champions League. The Spanish side, Atletico Madrid, won in 2012, beating Athletic Club behind a grand performance by the Colombian star, Falcao.

9.       The World Series of Poker

Poker

$8.7 million

At last year’s event, a then 22 year-old with the name of a ketchup Pope—Pius Heinz—won the main event, the $10,000 Buy-In No-Limit Texas Hold ‘Em.

10.   ICC Cricket World Cup

Cricket

$4 million

There was a time when disgraced financier and cricket fanatic, Allen Stanford, hosted an even richer cricket tournament. But while Stanford sits in jail awaiting sentencing after his conviction as a Ponzi-schemer, the World Cup has become the sport’s richest event. India won in 2011. The next World Cup is in 2015.

Chelsea’s style has surprised me, not their success – Mourinho

Manchester United manager Jose Mourinho has told the BBC he is not surprised by Chelsea’s success this season — but he is by their style of play.

Mourinho’s former club have a 10-point lead at the top of the Premier League, and his first trip to Stamford Bridge as United manager ended in a 4-0 thrashing in October.

United return to London for Monday’s FA Cup quarterfinal, ahead of which Mourinho appeared to take a dig at Chelsea manager Antonio Conte’s tactical approach.

He told the Football Focus programme: “I’m not surprised [by the success]. I’m surprised with the way they play.

“I’m surprised because I thought they were demanding a different kind of football.

“I think they are very good defensively and I think they have fantastic players to be a counter-attack team and to kill opponents with three or four players.”

Chelsea, with Tottenham, have the best defensive record in the league — conceding just 20 goals in 27 games — and also possess the second most potent attack, with their 57 goals just one short of Liverpool’s total.

That tally was helped by the four they scored against United in October, a game that ended with Mourinho taking exception to the way in which Conte geed up the home crowd late on.

But the United boss stressed: “I’m not looking for revenge. I’m not looking for anything wrong or bad.

“If it’s different [playing Chelsea], it’s different in a positive way.”

United won the EFL Cup last month, and Mourinho stressed that he wanted more glory, adding: “That [the EFL Cup] is good, but I would lie if I say I think it is enough for us.”

Elon Musk: Tech dreamer reaching for sun, moon and stars

Sending tourists for a trip around the moon is the latest big idea launched by Elon Musk, a Silicon Valley star known for turning his passions into visionary enterprises.

Musk has become one of the United States’ best-known innovators. He was a founder of payments company PayPal, electric carmaker Tesla Motors and SpaceX, maker and launcher of rockets and spacecraft.

SpaceX recently announced that two private citizens have paid money to be sent around the Moon in what would mark the farthest humans have ever traveled to deep space since the 1970s.

In a sector where entrepreneurs often speak of “moonshots,” Musk is one of the biggest dreamers.

The 45-year-old South Africa-born entrepreneur has channeled a dot-com fortune into a series of ambitious ventures.

Besides being the head of SpaceX and Tesla, Musk is the chairman of SolarCity, a solar panel installer recently bought by Tesla.

He also operates his own foundation focusing on education, clean energy and child health.

And he drafted a paper detailing the feasibility of an ultra-fast “Hyperloop” rail transport system that would transport people at near supersonic speeds, then made it freely available to enterprises willing to pursue the project.

– ‘Doesn’t sit around’ –

“He is a visionary who has some key passions which he pursues with vigor,” Jackdaw Research chief analyst Jan Dawson said of Musk.

“He doesn’t sit around and wait for people to do something about them; he goes out and does it himself.”

Musk’s penchant for rocketing after his passions may appear to spread him thin, but he has built a record of success.

Musk appears strong on painting big ideas in broad strokes and then enlisting people skilled at tending to the nuts-and-bolts work needed to follow through, say observers.

“He doesn’t seem to be able to focus,” analyst Rob Enderle of Enderle Group said.

“He just likes coming up with the ideas and is good at picking other people who can deal with the plumbing — that is why he is able to do a lot of stuff.”

And while some may wonder whether hubris or realism reigns in Musk’s moves, his businesses have gained value, with the jury still out on the wisdom of the Tesla acquisition of SolarCity.

“He can certainly sell his ideas,” Enderle said.

“The fact his businesses have held together so long indicates he is not a con man.”

– Fighting against evil –

Musk more than a year ago took part in creating a nonprofit research company devoted to developing artificial intelligence that will help people and not hurt them.

Musk found himself in the middle of a technology world controversy by holding firm that AI could turn on humanity and be its ruin instead of a salvation.

Technology giants including Google, Apple and Microsoft have been investing in making machines smarter, contending the goal is to improve lives.

“If we create some digital super-intelligence that exceeds us in every way by a lot, it is very important that it be benign,” Musk said at a conference in California.

He reasoned that even a benign situation with ultra-intelligent AI would put people so far beneath the machine they would be “like a house cat.”

“I don’t love the idea of being a house cat,” Musk said, envisioning the creation of neural lacing that magnifies people’s brain power by linking them directly to computing capabilities.

– Living in a game –

Some of his ideas have prompted questions about whether Musk is a visionary or mad scientist. He has raised eyebrows with a theory that the world as it is known may be a computer simulation.

“I’ve had so many simulation discussions it’s crazy,” Musk said while fielding a question on the topic at the conference.

He maintained that “the odds that we are in base reality is one in billions.”

Musk lives in Los Angeles and holds US, Canadian and South African citizenship.

He moved to Canada in his late teens and then to the United States, earning bachelor’s degrees in physics and business from the University of Pennsylvania.

After graduating, Musk abandoned plans to pursue further studies at Stanford University and started Zip2, a company that made online publishing software for the media industry.

He banked his first millions before the age of 30 when he sold Zip2 to US computer maker Compaq for more than $300 million in 1999.

Musk’s next company, X.com, eventually merged with PayPal, the online payments firm bought by Internet auction giant eBay for $1.5 billion in 2002.

Forbes estimates Musk’s current net worth at $13.4 billion.

Barcelona not more dangerous after PSG triumph – Zidane

Real Madrid boss Zinedine Zidane does not think Barcelona’s historic midweek comeback to dump Paris Saint-Germain out of the Champions League will have any bearing on the Liga title race.

Luis Enrique’s side scored three times in seven minutes to secure a 6-1 win over the Ligue 1 champions at Camp Nou on Wednesday, ensuring they overturned a 4-0 first-leg deficit.

Madrid’s faltering form – corrected to an extent by a 4-1 win at Eibar last weekend – has allowed Barca to replace them at the summit of Spain’s top flight, although Zidane’s men have a game in hand.

Speaking ahead of Sunday’s match with Real Betis at the Santiago Bernabeu, the Frenchman insisted bitter rivals Barcelona do not prompt increased fear among his players on the back of their dazzling feat of escapology.

“I don’t think they’re more dangerous or anything has changed since the last time we spoke,” Zidane said, before breaking into a knowingly wide grin.

“I’m not going to talk about percentages. I am focused on our game on Sunday.

“I’m not here to talk about what happened in midweek.”

Madrid enjoyed their own impressive Champions League outing 24 hours before Barcelona, coming from behind at a hostile Stadio San Paolo to repeat their first-leg scoreline of a 3-1 victory over Serie A high-flyers Napoli.

Zidane maintains fighting to defend their European crown will not distract Madrid from their quest to win LaLiga for the first time since 2011-12.

“We have not won the league for quite a few years, maybe five or six years,” he added.

“We are really motivated, we want to win this league title. It’s difficult to play every three days with the same intensity and energy.

“Rivals also play their part and can make life hard for you. The league is important and we want to win this league title this season

“My players are up for the title race.”

Barcelona host Valencia at Camp Nou on Sunday.

2019 timetable: INEC begins rigging process for APC – Secondus

Former acting National Chairman of the People’s Democratic Party PDP, Prince Uche Secondus, yesterday lampooned the 2019 Election time table released by the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, saying that the Commission had already begun the rigging process for the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC.

Prince Secondus who was reacting to Thursday’s release of timetable for the 2019 general election said in a statement he personally signed and released in Abuja yesterday that Nigerians need no further proof to establish that the Electoral body has been designed to do the ruling APC bidding all the way.

According to Secondus, the present INEC as composed, does not have the wherewithal to conduct what he described as unbiased election, just as he called for an immediate dissolution of Professor Mahmood Yakubu led INEC and reconstitute a new one with men and women of integrity as a measure to save the present democracy, adding that the APC is desperate.

Secondus said that INEC in its determination to carry out an APC designed agenda rolled out the timetable without carrying out the necessary due diligent that includes adequate consultations with critical stakeholders like the political parties and civil society groups whose input is always sought and accommodated before the final decisions are taken.

INEC had on Thursday through the National Commissioner in charge of the South West, Prince Solomon Soyebi, released a timetable where it fixed Saturday, February 16, 2019 for the Presidential and National Assembly elections and the Governorship/State Assembly/Federal Capital Territory Area Council Elections to hold Saturday, March 2, 2019.

Speaking further, Secondus who noted that the commission has shown enormous arrogance and lack of democratic principles in its affairs in rushing to release the timetable for the election that is 24 months away when it has many urgent and unfinished matters before it, said, “It is curious that an electoral commission that is yet to be properly constituted and has before it many unfinished matters including voter education and enlightenment, had to rush out date for 2019 general election in full disregard of rule guiding it.

“As we speak, Anambra state gubernatorial election is due later this year and the state has no Resident Electoral Commissioner REC to carry out all the needful as enshrined in the constitution before the election

“Since last year, Nigerian Senate had raised alarm over the implication of non constitution of INEC but while the National Commissioners are filled, over 30 seats of Resident Electoral Commissioners remain vacant.”

Secondus said that statutorily the President has the responsibility to appoint the RECs subject to the confirmation of the Senate in line with Section 153 of the 1999 constitution as amended, Part 1 of the Third Schedule to the Constitution, which established INEC; and Section 14(1) and (2) of the Third Schedule, which established the office of the National Chairman of INEC, the 12 National Commissioners as well as the RECs.

He said, “Is it not curious therefore that INEC that is rushing to release 2019 timetable operates currently without RECs in the following states, Abia, Akwa Ibom, Anambra, Bauchi, Bayelsa, Benue, Borno, Cross River, Ebonyi, Ekiti, Edo, Enugu, Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Imo, Jigawa, Kano, Kaduna, Katsina, Kebbi, Kogi, Kwara, Lagos, Niger, Plateau, Nasarawa, Ondo, Ogun, Osun, Oyo, Sokoto, Yobe and Zamfara.

Secondus who described as worrisome the character exhibited by the electoral body since Prof Mahmood Yakubu took over the leadership of the commission and doubt his ability to conduct free fair and credible poll, said, “From Kogi, to Bayelsa, Imo to Edo and Rivers states this commission under the watch of the current Chairman has failed to establish itself and engender the people’s confidence that it would be able to conduct unbiased election.

“If it is not inconclusive election, hacked website, it’s result falsification and result padding in connivance with the ruling APC”

The former Acting National Chairman of PDP who charged Nigerians especially critical stakeholders in the nation’s democracy project to view the rush by INEC to release 2019 as an action pregnant with agenda set out to Favour the ruling APC.