Real Madrid ranked the richest Football Club

                                                             Google Image

Real Madrid are the richest football club by revenue for the 11th straight year and La Liga rivals Barcelona have leapfrogged Manchester United into second, according to Deloitte's Football Money League.

Real topped the list published on Thursday, with an annual revenue of €577 million as the combined figure for the top 20 Money League clubs rose by eight percent to a record high of €6.6 billion.

Barcelona's stunning success on the pitch in 2015, when they claimed five of the six trophies on offer, including La Liga and the Champions League, helped them move above Manchester United, who fell to third.

It was the first time that the top three clubs in the Football Money League have all passed the €500 million revenue mark.

Spanish giants Real, who clinched a record-extending 10th European Cup in 2014, were buoyed by an increase in commercial revenues which rose by €22.7 million from the previous season.

Although Manchester United slipped down the table, the outlook for the record Premier League winners remains positive.

Tim Bridge, Senior Manager at Deloitte, said their return to Champions League football this season as well as a number of commercial partnerships would only strengthen the business in 2015-16.

"With this in mind, it would not be surprising to see United top next year’s Money League for the first time in 12 years," he said in a statement.

Premier League clubs remained the major force in the Money League, nine English teams making the top 20 with revenues totalling €3 billion.

Chelsea fell one place to eighth while London rivals Arsenal, who currently top the Premier League, climbed to seventh.

Manchester City and Liverpool were the other two Premier League clubs in the top 10, in sixth and ninth places respectively.

"With the new round of Premier League broadcast deals set to deliver greatly improved domestic broadcast revenues in 2016-17, we expect to see Premier League clubs cementing their places in the top 30 in the coming years, with potential for some of these to climb into the top 20,” Bridge said.

Bayern Munich fell from third to fifth place, their lowest position since 2006-07 and were overtaken by Paris St Germain, the only French team in the top 20.

Ibadan Royal Battle: Seriki chiefs wants to stop Adetunji as Olubadan

The Seriki, has headed for the court to stop the Oyo State Government and the Olubadan-In-Council from installing the Balogun of Ibadan, High Chief Saliu Adetunji, as the Olubadan of Ibadan land.

The Head of the acclaimed line, Chief Adebayo Oyediji, and five others yesterday filed a motion seeking an order compelling the government and the Olubadan-In-Council to install Oyediji as the Olubadan.

Oyediji, 89, and others based their prayer on a 1989 Supreme Court judgment, which ordered the recognition of the Seriki as the third line to produce the Olubadan.

According to him and the motion filed by his lawyer, A.G. Adeniran, before the Oyo state Chief Judge, Justice Mukthar Abimbola, the Olubadan -in-Council had since 1989 when the Seriki line obtained a Supreme Court judgment in their favour, denied them the opportunity of being admitted into the Olubadan line.

The businessman alleged disregard for rule of law on the part of the Olubadan -in-Council. He said he was the next to be installed Olubadan based on the said judgment.

According to him, the alleged marginalisation of the Seriki line began since the last Otun Seriki, Chief Adisa Akinloye, was denied the opportunity before he died in 2007. He said that Seriki was the third line in the chieftaincy of Olubadan, adding upon the denial, the Supreme Court in 1989 ordered that Seriki line be included as the third line to the appointment of Olubadan.

Oyediji claimed that the problem with the Seriki line started with the making of the 1959 Ekerin Balogun of Ibadan Chieftaincy Declaration which put Seriki under the Ekerin Balogun of Ibadan and provided for the first time  that Seriki can only be promoted to Ekerin Balogun only if there are two simultaneous vacancies occurring in the Ashipa and Ekerin Balogun titles.

He explained that upon winning against the then Olubadan of Ibadan, Oba Oloyede Asanke, and all the Chiefs in Balogun and Olubadan line, after challenging the said chieftaincy declaration, the Olubadan then prevailed on the Seriki chiefs not to insist on three lines for the Olubadan chieftaincy, but that rather chiefs in the Seriki line should cross to Ekerin Balogun and Ekerin Olubadan on the two lines whenever there is a vacancy in any of the two lines.

He said, the out-of-court agreement was that the Balogun and Olubadan lines would each have two steps of promotion from Ekarun to Ekerin in their lines before the Seriki line shall have its own promotion to Ekerin in any of the two lines.

Having been denied the opportunity for long and following the consecutive deaths of high chiefs Sulaimon Omiyale and Omowale Kuye from both sides in November and December last year, Chief Oyediji said that it was the time of Seriki to have a shot at the Olubadan, stressing: “When the agreement was reached, the late Oba Odulana was the only senior ranking high chief in the Olubadan line and we were in the same rank. If that agreement was followed, I am the next person to succeed him.”

In the new motion filed by his lawyer, Adeniran, dated 19/01/2016 marked I/421/07 seeking an amendment to reflect the earlier order of the court, he sought a declaration that “by the provision of the consent judgment delivered by the high court in suit No. I/313/88, it is the turn of the claimants to produce the next Olubadan of Ibadan on both the Olubadan line and the Balogun line”.

He also sought the order of the court “setting aside the purported appointments made by the 1st defendant (Oba Odulana) to fill vacancies existing in the chieftaincy titles of Ekerin Olubadan, Ashipa Olubadan, Osi Olubadan, Otun Olubadan and Balogun Olubadan of Ibadan since the 21st of November, 2008 up till the last appointment he made on the 1st of January, 2016”.

Oyediji also called for an order “setting aside the purported approval granted by the Governor of a Oyo state on the 5th of January, 2016 or thereabout to the appointments made by the 1st defendant on the 1st of January, 2016 to fill vacancies existing in the chieftaincy titles”.


With The Nation

N5,000 stipends: No statistics of unemployed Nigerians, says Minister

The Minister of  State for Labour and Employment, James Ocholi (SAN), on Wednesday revealed that the ministry currently does not have data on the number of unemployed Nigerians according to Punch .

It requires the data to enable it prepare the template for beneficiaries of the proposed N5,000 stipends for the unemployed/ vulnerable Nigerians.

The minister said this while responding to questions from reporters at the National Secretariat of the All Progressives Congress, Abuja.

According to him, the ministry recently commissioned a firm to capture the data of the under-employed/ unemployed to enable it prepare the necessary template for the effective take off of the scheme.

He also explained that the ministry has written a memo to the President through the Secretary to the Government of the Federation for it to take over the over 76 federal skills acquisition centres spread across Nigeria.

Ocholi said, “Before we got to where we are there is no data anywhere. There is no data of the unemployed.

“In fact, there is no data of the employed. It’s a bad situation but as we talk with you, we have experts working on the software and the various things which we have discussed with them on how to capture the data of the employed and the unemployed. And for those who are employed there are many who are in wrong places.

“There are many who are in jobs they don’t even enjoy and who want to have a job better than what they are doing right now.

“There is a firm that we sort for and is working with the National Directorate of  Employment, they have done a pilot scheme in Bwari and they have an office in Lobito Crescent right now and they are preparing for a mega scale on job profiling.”

He explained that experience has shown that there were people who have acquired a particular skill but are not suited for the kind of jobs they find themselves doing.

The current administration he noted was determined to provide an enabling environment for the private sector which is the driving force in the area of job creation to thrive.

In response to specific plans towards actualizing the disbursement of the N5,000 stipends to deserving citizens, the Minister said details were being worked out.

He, however, said beneficiaries will be categorized in such a way that graduates who will attend skills acquisition centres will be paid something above what they earned as youth corps members.

Ocholi said, “In other words, while being trained you earn something, that will bridge the gap between now and when they begin to open their shops and employ their own labour. Part of the N5,000 you hear may not actually end up being N5,000.

“For instance, if a graduate chooses to go and acquire a skill and is taken to a centre for skill acquisition and he was earning N18,000 or N19,000 or whatever the range is as a youth corper, he can’t come back here and start earning that N5,000 it can’t sustain him.

“For a graduate, he may need to get something higher to keep him or her while going through that skills acquisition centre but for the retraining programme which we talk about teachers. The details are being worked out by the technocrats.”

With Punch

The tax fraud case of Messi and his father Jorge will be heard in May

Lionel Messi’s tax fraud case will be heard by a Barcelona court from 31 May through to 3 June, according to statement on Wednesday.

World Player of the Year Messi and his father Jorge are accused of defrauding the Spanish state of 4.2 million euros in tax between 2007 and 2009 and a Spanish court ordered that they stand trial last October.

The state attorney has proposed jail terms of up to 22 months if they are found guilty.

Barcelona forward Messi and his father have already paid five million euros to the tax authorities as a “corrective” measure after they were formally charged in June 2013.

With Eyewitness news

Confusion as Tanzania make a U-turn miniskirts ban

Tanzanian president John Magufuli. Picture:AFP

Tanzania’s government has dismissed reports that President John Magafuli has banned miniskirts.

The claim emerged this week in the Kenyan Standard Newspaper, suggesting that the president had attributed an increase in the spread of HIV/Aids to the garment.

The government has released a statement this afternoon saying the report is false, and that while the president is a strong proponent of decent dressing, there is no ban on miniskirts.

In the statement, the government said it deplored the casual manner in which the publication handled what it’s called a “hearsay report”.

It goes on to say the report and attribution of the “imaginary ban” to the Tanzanian statesman was reckless and totally unwarranted.