FC Barcelona Copa del Rey Champions 2016: the Champions’ trip home
Barcelona have agreed an extension to their kit-manufacturing deal with Nike NKE which Spanish media reported was the most lucrative arrangement of its kind in the world.
The Spanish champions issued a statement saying details of the contract will be specified at their next general assembly.
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Barcelona-based daily newspapers Diario Sport and Mundo Deportivo reported that the deal could be worth 155 million euros ($174 million) a season and would run until 2026.
FC Barcelona and NIKE, Inc. have extended their current sponsorship deal, which was due to end on June 30, 2018, Barcelona said on Saturday.
LeBron Jamess Nike Deal May be Worth More Than $1 Billion
The long-term agreement is a landmark in global football and builds upon a highly successful partnership.
President Josep Maria Bartomeu added: We are excited by this new agreement and are confident we will be able to celebrate continued sporting successes together.
FC Barcelona – Copa Champions 2016: Alba y Busquets valoran la victoria
FC Barcelona secured the Copa Del Rey for the 28th time after beating Sevilla 2-0 thanks to goals from Neymr and Jordi Alba. AFP
Jordi Alba and Neymar struck in extra-time as Barcelona completed a league and Cup double by lifting the Copa del Rey for a 28th time after a 2-0 win over Sevilla in a fiery game that saw three red cards on Sunday.
Javier Mascherano"s dismissal just before half-time for pulling down Kevin Gameiro put Barca on the back foot and they were further depleted when 59-goal top scorer Luis Suarez limped off early in the second period.
However, they resisted Sevilla"s pressure after the break and Barca"s numerical disadvantage was cancelled out in stoppage time when Ever Banega saw red for chopping down Neymar.
Barca dominated the extra 30 minutes, but needed just six to finally make the breakthrough when Lionel Messi"s sumptuous pass picked out Alba to volley into the far corner.
Neymar then slotted home a second in the dying seconds from another brilliant Messi assist after Daniel Carrico had also been dismissed for two bookable offences.
"It was a great intense and exciting final," said Barcelona captain Andres Iniesta.
"It was a last push for the club to complete a magnificent season."
Sevilla were looking for a double of their own after winning a third consecutive Europa League by beating Liverpool 3-1 on Wednesday.
However, just as in a thrilling 5-4 defeat to Barca to open the season in the European Super Cup in August, they fell just short as Luis Enrique"s men claimed their fourth trophy of the season, having also won the Club World Cup in December.
"It has been a spectacular end to the season," added Barca boss Luis Enrique.
"The team has known how to compete marvellously despite the difficulties we have faced this season."
And Sevilla coach Unai Emery believes his side"s exertions in midweek robbed them of the energy needed to make their numerical advantage count.
"We lacked freshness. If we had have been fresher we would have been able to create more chances," said Emery.
"Barca didn"t have many opportunities, but they were efficient."
Neymar and Jordi Alba scored in extra time as FC Barcelona won a tense match against Sevilla. AFP
Anthem jeers
The political fallout over an initial ban on Catalan separatist flags by the Madrid authorities that was eventually overturned on appeal in the courts continued before kick-off as Barca fans jeered the Spanish national anthem.
The game appeared to swing Sevilla"s way nine minutes before half-time when Mascherano hauled down Gameiro just outside the box as he bore down on goal.
Banega nearly doubled Barca"s punishment as his sweet strike from the resulting free-kick was brilliantly tipped over the bar by Marc-Andre ter Stegen.
Sevilla roared back from a goal down at the break to outclass Liverpool in midweek and started the second-half with intent once more as Banega"s low drive came back off the post.
Barca were then dealt another huge blow just before the hour mark when Suarez pulled up with a muscle injury before leaving the field in tears with his chances of representing Uruguay at the Copa America next month now in jeopardy.
Sevilla were camped in the Barca half for much of the second half, but struggled to create clear-cut chances.
Grzegorz Krychowiak saw a deflected effort flash just wide, whilst Vicente Iborra"s appeals for a penalty after he clashed with Dani Alves were waived away.
Parity was restored in numbers on each side in stoppage time when Banega saw red for tripping Neymar on the edge of the area, but Sergio Rico tipped over Messi"s resulting free-kick to take the game into extra time.
However, the Spanish international was left flat-footed when Alba latched onto Messi"s ball over the top six minutes into extra-time and volleyed across goal into the far corner.
Rico kept Sevilla in the game with brilliant saves from Pique and Sergio Busquets, whilst Dani Alves also hit the post from distance as Barca threatened a second.
Sevilla"s hopes of an equaliser were ended when Daniel Carrico was also sent-off for a second bookable offence.
And Messi promptly teed up Neymar to round off Barca"s fourth Cup triumph in eight years in stoppage time.
Stat of the Day: 10. Double-faults by Kvitova, who was a game from losing before winning in three sets.
Quote of the day: "It"s not that you said, "Towel!" too loud. It"s the way you said it." Chair umpire Carlos Ramos to Kyrgios, explaining why he assessed a code violation warning for unsportsmanlike conduct.
On court Monday: No. 2 Andy Murray vs. Radek Stepanek, No. 3 Stan Wawrinka vs. Lukas Rosol, No. 5 Kei Nishikori vs. Simone Bolelli (completion of suspended match); No. 2 Agnieszka Radwanska vs. Bojana Jovanovski, No. 4 Garbine Muguruza vs. Anna Karolina Schmiedlova, No. 14 Ana Ivanovic vs. Oceane Dodin.
Monday"s forecast: Rain. High of 59 (15 Celsius).
Online: http://www.rolandgarros.com/index.html
Copyright 2016 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
The New Day continued their march toward one year as the WWE tag team champions Sunday night at Extreme Rules by defeating The Vaudevillains in a competitive title match.
WWE shared a photo of the winning duo after Big E speared Aiden English:
WWE analyst Matts Madness and WhatCulture WWE offered their initial takes on the match:
After the match, English addressed the loss on Twitter:
After they had run through the tag team division, it appeared as though there was nobody left for The New Day to beat, but that changed following WrestleMania, when an influx of talent arrived to the main roster from NXT.
Chief among them were The Vaudevillains and the team of Enzo Amore and Big Cass. Those duos reached the final of a tournament to determine new No. 1 contenders for the WWE Tag Team Championships, but the match ended in disaster at Payback.
The bout had to be stopped after Enzo suffered a concussion, soEnglish and Simon Gotch became the No. 1 contenders.
That led to an entertaining feud between The Vaudevillains and the outspoken triumvirate of Kofi Kingston, Big E and Xavier Woods.
Much of the rivalry focused on English and Gotch espousing the virtues of the olden days, only for The New Day to counter with some opinions of their own, such as this one, courtesy of WWE Universe:
The New Day"s jocularity didn"t sit well with The Vaudevillains, especially when they mocked the throwback tag team with a time-machine gag.
The Vaudevillains crashed the party and attacked The New Day, after which English made a bold statement regarding the titles:
While The Vaudevillains entered Extreme Rules with momentum on their side and looked like they belonged in the same ring as The New Day, they ultimately fell short in their pursuit of the top prize in tag team wrestling.
Despite the defeat, The Vaudevillains are still in a positive position since they have lost just once on the main roster and could be in line for another title shot.
WWE is lacking in terms of heel tag teams, so unless Luke Gallows and Karl Anderson shift their focus to the championship scene or The Dudley Boyz get another crack at the straps, The New Day and The Vaudevillains may not be done with one another yet.
Putting the belts on The Vaudevillains and forcing The New Day to chase them could have created a more intriguing angle, but there was little incentive to change what has been working.
The New Day are consistently the most entertaining act on WWE programming on a weekly basis, and WWEagain showed its confidence in the group Sunday.
Since the graphic novel was released in 1995, various people in show business have been toiling to bring Preacher to the screen. Miramax considered turning it into a movie in 2000; a film version with James Marsden attached almost got off the ground in 2002; HBO came close to bringing Preacher to television in 2006; two years later, Sam Mendes was tapped to direct a film adaptation. Each of these vehicles came to a screeching halt though, for a variety of reasons that mostly have to do with Preacher"s composition. The comic book series is complex, gory, religiously controversial, scatterbrained, and full of big ideas that don"t exactly translate to moving pictures. A perfect encapsulation of Preacher"s complexity and challenging source material is one of its most uproarious characters: Arseface, a teenager whose failed suicide-by-shotgun attempt resulted in a deformity in which, yes, his face looks like an a*****e.
What Arseface symbolizesgrotesque humor, dark undertones, otherworldly atmosphereis the heart of Preacher. An inability to capture Arseface is an inability to capture Preacher. So, Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg, who finally brought a Preacher adaptation to fruition (the show premieres tonight on AMC), had a huge challenge to overcome with this character. And, in terms of likeness to the comic, it appears they pulled it off:
So how did they do it? By smartly calling on one of the best special make-up effects creator to ever live, Greg Nicotero (Day of the Dead, The Walking Dead). Rogen and Goldberg previously worked with Nicotero for their movies Neighbors and This Is the End, and since Nicotero already had a long relationship with AMC, it was a perfect fit. "They know their s**t, that"s what made this so exciting," Nicotero tells me. "They sent me the graphic novel [right away], so we were involved very early on." The 53-year-old expert was tasked with all of Preacher"s special make-up effects, but everyone involved with the show knew that Arseface would be the centerpiece. "Even Seth, the first time thing he says to me was, "Hey, I can"t wait to do that! It"s gonna be so much fun!" Nicotero says.
Devising the character"s appearance, there were a couple things Rogen, Goldberg, and Nicotero wanted to keep in mind. First, there was a conscious effort to rely on practical effects instead of CGI or digital augmentation. The second concern was character-based: they had to find a way to give Arseface a r****m for a mouth while still making him sympathetic. This is a troubled teenage boy who has issues and emotions that are central to Preacherso Nicotero had to be sure that viewers wouldn"t immediately dismiss him out of disgust. It"s an a*****e, but it"s an a*****e you have to feel for.
Naturally, Nicotero and his team went through countless prototypes before striking that seemingly impossible balance. (Nicotero shared a few of these early designs with usscroll down to see them.) "We generated a lot pre-production artwork, since the character is so important," he says. "I think we went through 14 to 16 different variations of this character." In some variations, Arseface would have more scars from the shotgun"s buckshot. In some, they played with the size of the mouth-hole and "the striations of the musculature towards the mouth." And in other, more grotesque models, "the orifice was very puckered and sphincter-like."
"We tend to go big first, really put everything out there, and then dial things back," Nicotero says. "And with guys like Seth and Evan, they also have really big personalities, so it was really great that we had [Preacher showrunner] Sam [Catlin]. Sam helped sort of balance things out."
The Arseface make-up, which is actually one big prosthetic Nicotero and his team made, takes about two hours to apply to actor Ian Colletti"s face. The most important parts in application for Nicotero was making sure the jaw line looked correct, and then perfectly shading the edges of the prosthetic to hide any signs of practical effects. "That"s the hardest part because when you"re shooting in New Mexico, a lot times an actor will start to sweat off the prosthetic. So you have to be very cautious about blending," Nicotero says. One other thing: the hole in Arseface"s face had to be a black abyss. "We ended up needing to blacken out [Colletti"s] teeth. So what we did was we created a black dental tray, so that when he was talking you didn"t see his teeth. And we had to paint his lips, so that everything was black inside the hole."
The last step of building Arseface was one, making sure Colletti could talk through the prosthetic, and two, letting him take the make-up to the next level. "The actor brings it to life. We"ve worked on shoes where we put prosthetics on a performer and it falls flat," Nicotero says. That wasn"t the case for Arseface, who Nicotero says did a great job of elevating the look they gave him, and imbuing this grotesque-looking character with a sweetness and a personality that goes deeper than facial deformities.
All of that hard work culminates when Preacher premieres tonight. After twenty years of waiting, fans will finally see this uniquely bizarre story brought to life on TV, and the execution of Arseface is going to be a large part of the reason why the adaptation takes people"s breath away. The reality of this character, one that many tried and failed to create over the past two decades, is going to be something to behold.
Preacher: "A Bunny in a Bear Trap" Talked About Scene Ep.101
Arms got broken, hearts cut out, ears bitten off and intestines spilled. Entire cows got eaten, sports mascots were beaten up and helicopters shot down with backyard bazookas. Safe to say this wasnt your average parish.
It wasnt all ultra-violence. Cooper had quiet moments with church organist Emily (Lucy Griffiths, another Brit) and a local lad called Arseface (Ian Colletti), whose botched suicide by shotgun had left him with a face like well, you can imagine. Rather than played for laughs, though, this was surprisingly sweetly handled - reminiscent of The Elephant Man and rather poignant.
Elsewhere, though, the adolescent roots of the comic books showed through. It was distinctly iffy when a battered wife insisted she enjoyed being abused. In an upcoming episode, women from the local brothel run around in lingerie while sadistic cattle ranchers shoot at them.
Celine Dion Interview | Her Final Moments With Husband René Angélil
We dare you not to cry while watching this.
On Sunday, Celine Dion SLAYED alongside Lindsey Stirling as they performed their cover of Queen"s The Show Must Go On at the Billboard Music Awards.
The Canadian crooner showed off her powerful pipes while belting out the epic anthem in Las Vegas.
But after slaying that single, we got seriously choked up when the 48-year-old received the ICON Award from her son Ren-Charles Anglil.
The gorgeous gal began to cry onstage, asking her 15-year-old to stand beside her as she accepted the honor, and apologized for shedding a few tears.
But considering the lovely lady lost both her husband and her brother in the same week, we don"t blame her for getting emotional!
In fact, the soulful singer used her acceptance speech to give a short, touching tribute to her late love.
Watch her sentimental statement and powerful performance (above)!
And check out the ongoing winners list HERE!
Tags: awardz, bbmas, bbmas 2016 celine dion, billboard music awards, billboard music awards 2016, celine dion, icon award, las vegas, lindsey stirling, music minute, queen, sin city, the show must go on
