Josep Maria Bartomeu gets re-elected as Barcelona president.

                          Josep Maria Bartomeu has been re-elected as Barcelona president for a second term, beating former president Joan Laporta in Saturday's election. Bartomeu, who resigned last month as an interim board took charge during the election period, will return to office and begin to implement some of the promises made in his campaign after fighting off the competition.The 52-year-old Bartomeu became club president in January 2014 when his predecessor, Sandro Rosell, resigned after being named in a court investigation into alleged misappropriation of funds to sign the Brazil striker Neymar. Bartomeu himself was later included in the ongoing investigation.

                         

                         Despite overseeing one of the most successful seasons in the club's history during the 2014-15 campaign, with Luis Enrique's men winning the treble, Bartomeu has been a figure of controversy at Camp Nou. He was much criticized for the current sponsorship agreement with Qatar Airways.
                         The club said Bartomeu received 54.63% of the votes cast by club members. His closest rival was the former president Joan Laporta. Backed by club greats Pep Guardiola and Johan Cruyff, he collected 33%.

LIVERPOOL ACTIVATES BENTEKE RELEASE CLAUSE. TRANSFER TO BE COMPLETED SOON.

                       In what seems like a surprising move, Liverpool have met a £32.5m release clause for Aston Villa's Belgium striker Christian Benteke, triggering a potential transfer.  Benteke was a transfer target for many Premier League clubs, but most of them were not willing to pay the release clause. Liverpool became the only team to match it after receiving funds from the sale of Raheem Sterling, for  £49m to  Manchester City.
                       The 24-year-oldBelgian had some fitness issue and missed playing many games for Aston Villa last season. But whenever fit he was always a threat in front of the goal. He scored 12 goals in 12 games in the 2014-15 season to help keep Villa in the Premier League. Benteke joined Aston Villa from Genk in August 2012 for £7m and has scored 49 goals in 101 appearances.
                        The transfer is supposed to be completed once the personal terms are agreed and medical is done.

Manchester United hijacks Arsenal target as they agree the deal of German international

                   Manchester United was able to sign Southampton midfielder Morgan Schneiderlin for a fee in the region of £25m. The French international was a long term target of Arsenal manager, Arsene Wenger, though he was reluctant to match Southampton  valuation. Schneiderlin, 25, has made 253 appearances and scored 15 times for Southampton since his debut in 2008. The French international has made nine appearances for his country.

                      The Red Devils also completed the signing of  Germany international, Bastian Schweinsteiger.

The world cup winner has signed a three-year contract from Bundesliga champions Bayern Munich for a reported £14.4m. Schweinsteiger made his Bayern debut in 2002 and appeared 536 times for the club. He played under United boss Louis van Gaal when the Dutchman managed Bayern between 2009 and 2011.

                      The signing of the two midfielders by Manchester United was a day after their city rivals Manchester City announced that Liverpool winger Raheem Sterling will join them  in a £49m deal.

Minions have a blockbuster opening

                               This weekend the animated movie Minions crushed the box office this weekend with an eye-popping $115.2 million debut weekend. The movie cost $74 million to produce, and so it is a blockbuster from the first weekend itself. It had the second-biggest opening weekend of all time for an animated title, not accounting for inflation.It fell short of the $121m debut of Shrek the Third in 2007.Instead of playing like an original movie, it is playing like a direct sequel to the popular Despicable Me series. Minions , received an A CinemaScore, which shows that the movie should have a decent enough hold. And overseas, where it began rolling out two weekends ago, the family title also placed No. 1 with $124.3 million from 56 markets for a whopping foreign total of $280.5 million and early global cume of $395.7 million. The other new release Focus Features’ “Self/Less” was not so fortunate, picking up roughly $5.4 million from 1,953 locations.