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Kaieteur News
Leicester City: Party time as Foxes crowned Premier League champions BBC Sport - Leicester City celebrated their coronation as Premier League champions and the first title in their 132year history with victory over Everton on a day of elation at the King Power Stadium. This was the Foxes’ official homecoming after they won the Premier League on Monday when Tottenham failed to beat Chelsea - and how they celebrated before, during and after the greatest day in the club’s history. Leicester concluded the story that has captured the world’s imagination when captain Wes Morgan and manager Claudio Ranieri jointly lifted the Premier League trophy as they completed the journey from relegation battlers and 5,000-1 outsiders to champions in the space of 12 months. This 3-1 victory over Everton was simply another demonstration of the power, commitment and quality that has brought them the title but this was more than a football match, it was a carnival with teams of joy and high emotion. Italian tenor Andrea Bocelli, blind since the age of 12, was accompanied by fellow countryman Ranieri as he walked out 30 minutes before kick-off to fulfil a promise to perform at the King Power Stadium if Leicester became champions. And in an spinetingling moment, Ranieri looked close to tears before the stadium exploded in applause and the teams came out. This has been no ordinary title win and the moments when Ranieri stood side-byside with Bocelli demonstrated that this was no ordinary title celebration. The long and winding Aylestone Road that weaves past Leicestershire’s cricket ground at Grace Road and up to the King Power Stadium was awash with fans and festooned in colour more than three hours before kick-off. Leicester’s title party started at the stadium late on Monday and the scene suggested it had continued for a week in readiness for the day when the Premier League trophy was held aloft by Morgan and his boss. Thousands of supporters surrounded the stadium simply to take part in the carnival to mark Leicester’s achievement, a nine-month-long sustained shock to the entire world of sport’s system. A fairground was set up alongside the arena while hundreds gathered close to a big screen flashing up the greatest moments of this seismic season - and there was
Manager Claudio Ranieri won a top-flight league title for the first time in his career. (Reuters) plenty to show, each goal bringing rousing cheers from the masses waiting for the main event.Even those unable to secure highly prized tickets simply wanted to be near this outpouring of joy and a chance to celebrate an unlikely story of success that took Leicester from a brush with relegation to the Premier League title in the space of a year. This is a global story, arguably the biggest overturning of the odds and defiance of logic in sport, with the demand for media tickets far greater than supply at this welcoming club that has dealt with the weight of expectation and rising attention in exemplary fashion. Among the banners and signals of success one banner read “A Trophy Earned Not Bought”. This has not exactly been a rags-to-riches tale but it has turned the Premier League’s natural order upside down. If the scenes outside were breathtaking, they were surpassed by what took place inside. This was a day Leicester, the city and its football club, will never forget and they did it justice. Leicester’s players and their popular, charismatic manager Ranieri were always going to be the central figures - but there was one special non-footballing touch that will never be forgotten by anyone who witnessed it. It was when Ranieri led Bocelli to a raised platform in the centre circle and briefly addressed the crowd before gesturing for silence, a call they heeded, then listened in awe to a perfect rendition of Nessun Dorma. Bocelli then revealed he was wearing a Leicester shirt before his final number, Time to Say Goodbye. The party mood continued on the pitch as Leicester City overran, outfought and outclassed Everton. If their celebrations had been to excess, perhaps understand-
ably, there was no sign of it here as they simply did what they have done all season. And as the Leicester family gathered, it was a time to celebrate the club’s past as well as this glorious present. There was a parade of greats at half-time, including England’s World Cup-winning goalkeeper Gordon Banks, former captain and manager Frank McLintock - a league and FA Cup doublewinner with Arsenal in 1971 as well as Dave Gibson and Mike Stringfellow. This thunderous atmosphere fell silent for a few seconds shortly after the final whistle in anticipation of the presentation, but not for long. There was even a rendition of We Are Staying Up - a knowingly incongruous anthem for this new, resurgent LeicesterCity. One figure has been at the hub of it all, the manager celebrated in the banner as The Godfather - Claudio Ranieri. This modest, emotional man was close to tears once more as he made his way to the presentation platform, the character they called the nearly man, ‘The Tinkerman’, who had pulled off one of the greatest feats in sport. This weekend last year the Foxes were edging away from relegation with a 2-0 win against Southampton that took them into 15th place with 37 points from 36 games, two goals from Riyad Mahrez barely hinting at what was to come. Now Mahrez is PFA Player of the Year, Jamie Vardy the Football Writers’ Association Footballer Of The Year and so much more significantly Leicester are champions with 80 points from 37 games. They have allowed sport to suspend belief - but the King Power Stadium was celebrating glorious reality as fireworks and flames went off in the moment Morgan and Rainieri lifted the Premier League trophy. Sport’s unlikeliest success story was complete.
Sunday May 08, 2016
Letter to the Sports Editor
Beginning a dialogue on sports revival Dear Editor, History repeats itself, first as tragedy, second as farce... these words written by Karl Marx have too often been proved prophetic, Our Nation is moving towards a repetition, seemingly inexorably and on an unseen set of rails, we are in an economic recession and people are struggling to survive, the political class seem more intent on scoring imaginary points in the frivolous game they call the national assembly. Each of us has a part to play i n e f f e c t i n g r e a l change; it requires setting aside our egos and penchant for criticism without offering pragmatic solutions. In this spirit I will admit to being harshly critical of the Government’s attempt to host the Caribbean Premiere League finals event in return for a hefty payment, my writings on that issue did not offer concrete alternatives, I do so now. The President in his speech at the Guyana Olympic Awards annual dinner showed an admirable grasp of our nation’s sporting history and hinted at his vision of the way forward, I would like to build on the points made by His Excellency and suggest that the sporting fraternity become proactive in presenting a solution to the various
issues affecting sport development in Guyana. The first area of business is annual allocation of funding to the National Governing Bodies (NGB) of the various sporting disciplines, my solution to the chaotic system that was inherited by the current administration, is to allocate an equal funding amount to all member bodies of the GOA annually, NGB’s would then be able to plan events based on the known amount of funding available. The GOA would become an active adviser on events, NGB’s would present budgets for events which would be perused by experienced event managers at the GOA for possible areas of saving. The GOA would pay bills for NGB’s therefore becoming a major purchaser of event items and possibly being in the position to secure discounted prices based on volume purchases, we all use the same items, and the power of collective bargaining can be harnessed for our benefit. This is but a brief outline of how this arrangement would work, it does not replace the National Sports Commission who will continue to serve the needs of the people in sport through additional funding of NGB activities and non-affiliated community sport events and per-
sons. The second area of concern is sporting facilities, maintenance of existing ones, improvement of basic grounds and creation of new ones. In this area we are woefully behind where we should be, fifty years in as a nation and we are yet to truly acknowledge the role sport plays in nation building. In my humble opinion, it is the cornerstone upon which our nation will be built, the desired unity of our six peoples first occurs on sporting fields and then filters through to daily life, the term ‘level playing field’ is not accidental, it is factual. The Caribbean credits the West Indies cricket team with forging its identity, to have been at Bourda Cricket Ground during the Hooper/ Chanderpaul era was to witness something really special about us as a people, it is well known that Hooper feigned illness to provide opportunity for Chanderpaul, as politics divide us we count on sport to unite us, currently we are experiencing an imbalance, our sporting heroes have aged and moved out of the active arena while the older politicians are more active than ever. I urge that the GoG meet with each NGB and seek to treat each sport’s (Continued on page 74)
GDA hosts 18-team Mother’s Day Tournament today The Georgetown Dominoes Association (GDA) will be hosting a one-day eighteen (18)- team Mother’s Day Tournament today, at the President’s residence at Gaulding Place, South Ruimveldt. According to Organising Secretary Mark ‘Jumbie’ Wiltshire, who spoke to Kaieteur Sport via telephone yesterday, the event is being organized by President of the GDA Faye Joseph and the cost to enter per team is $6,000 for an all-female, while an all-male team will have to pay $9,000 with attractive prizes at stake Wiltshire said the competition is open to all interested teams and double-six time is 14:00 hrs. He added that the tournament is all part of the GDA President’s effort to continue to popularize the sport and at the same time help lift the
Faye Joseph standard locally. The Organiser also informed that once again a zero tolerance policy will be in
place for teams or individuals who attempt to flout the disciplinary statutes set up by the GDA.