Top 3 Inspirational Sporting Figures

When it comes to sports, inspiration figures are truly sights to behold. When riding solo, they emulate brave knights, talismanic in battle. When part of a team or squad they resemble army generals, victorious due to their war conduct. Here is a celebration of sport’s most inspirational figures over the years.

Muhammad Ali

The first sportsman to coin the quote ‘I am the greatest’, Muhammad Ali owns this phrase because he simply is the greatest ever boxer to had lived. In fact it wouldn’t even be possible to begrudge Ali claiming he meant the greatest ever ‘sportsman’, when he uttered what was to become his infamous catchphrase.

His speed was incredible, precision tremendous and power mind boggling. Ali was a man of extraordinary talent and charisma. The most entertaining in and out of the ring, Ali’s title as ‘the king’ is hard to dispute.

Sportsmen are often appreciated for their worth away from the actual sports cameras and in front of the interview cameras. Ali also excelled tremendously in this aspect, giving viewers limericks, poems, banter and some truly memorable quotes.

Arkle

Three Cheltenham Gold Cups, Two Hennessy Gold Cups, the Whitbread Gold Cup, Irish Grand National, King George VI … Read more at FryingPanSports

The State of English Football Today

The English Premier League is widely regarding as one of the most competitive leagues in world football. And yet, since it’s inception in 1993 only four teams have managed to win the title: Manchester United (12 times), Arsenal and Chelsea (3 times) and Blackburn Rovers (once).

Other teams have attempted to break this domination, usually with the help of some hefty foreign financial backing, including Liverpool, Tottenham and, most recently, Manchester City. As the form begins to settle down for the 2011/2012 season the old familiar faces are appearing at the top of the table and the rest will be left fighting for scraps or desperately trying to avoid relegation.

So where do we get this complacency about our league? Is it the influx of foreign players? Perhaps. But the novelty of watching the biggest names on the international stage plying their trade at Stamford Bridge or Old Trafford has surely worn off. The effects on our national team have been well documented with no sign of a trophy to add to our 1966 World Cup. Hopes of anything appearing in the trophy cabinet any time soon will have taken a dent with our recent scrambled qualification for Euro 2012 … Read more at FryingPanSports

Rewards for Success in Football Europe

Even though football season is now over, teams around the world are examining their finances and planning for the next season. Despite the ever increasing amount of money coming into football, many of the clubs in the Premier League and throughout Europe are still making a loss and even some of the most famous are heavily in debt such as Barcelona with a £400 million debt to go with their champions league trophy. This is hard to believe when we examine the financial rewards currently available for success in modern football.

Manchester United have now earned more than £60m in earnings from Premier League prize money and TV cash from the overseas deals from TV has ensured that current premier league clubs can earn up to £7m more than the 2009 / 2010 season.

The English league governing body better know as the premier league shares out income in various ways firstly the money based on position in the league, then on equal shares of TV income, which is then added to depending on how many times your club is shown on TV on domestic television. The 2010/2011 season, each premier league club received a total of £13.8m of the … Read more at FryingPanSports