Month: August 2018

Soccer’s European governing body has announced the list of nominees for the 2017-18 Men’s Player of the Year award.

The list features Real Madrid star Luka Modrić, Juventus’ newest member Cristiano Ronaldo and Liverpool’s hope, Mohamed Salah. The winner will be announced along with the UEFA Women’s Player of the Year and UEFA Champions League positional award winners in Monaco on Thursday, August 30, the occasion at which the group stage draw for the Champions League 2-18-19 season will also be announced.

The three players on the shortlist for the main event in Monaco were selected by a jury comprising 90 coaches of the clubs that were part of the Champions League group stages of the 2017/18 and Europa League, along with 55 journalists.

Ronaldo, a Champions League winner for a record five times and the top-scorer of the tournament in the sixth straight season, will be looking for his fourth UEFA player’s title. He won in 2014, 2016 and 2017.

Bulgaria was chosen as the public’s winner in the 2018 Fireworks Festival, after the official jury awarded first place to Portugal.

The Fireworks Festival, this year renamed ‘Art in the Sky,’ was decided by online voting and the winner announced at the Town Hall on Monday, August 20. The jury had placed the Bulgarians in third place out of four.

The Bulgarian company Enigma Fireworks were the last of the teams to light up the skies over Monaco, on August 11.

The public rated Bulgaria 8.75 out of 10, Portugal 8.20, Spain 5.65 and Italy 4.73.

The news that UK billionaire Sir Jim Radcliffe is to become a Monaco resident has caused quite a stir in Britain, given that he is not only Britain’s most wealthy individual, but also a strong opponent of the country’s EU membership. His company, Ineos, has almost 20,000 employees in 24 countries and an annual turnover of 67 billion euros.

Meanwhile, Monaco’s Official Journal records that Ineos Monaco Limited SAM was set up in March this year. The firm’s address is given as 4, avenue de Roqueville, the same as that of Tyrus Capital. The Journal de Monaco indicates in Article 4 of its listing of Ineos that the the company’s purpose is to act for the companies of the Ineos Group in the Principality of Monaco and abroad.

Sir Jim, 65, had already caught the headlines in Britain this year as he has taken the number-one spot in the league table of richest people, with an estimated worth of 23.55 billion euros. He owns 60 percent of Ineos Group, the UK company specialising in petroleum products.

He is fervently opposed to rules and regulations emanating from Brussels, as well as taxation.  According to the Sunday Times, two other directors of Ineos, Andy Currie, and chief financial officer John Reeces – both billionaires in their own right – are also planning to move to Monaco.

In their first home game of the new season, AS Monaco held Lille to a 0-0 draw on Saturday evening.

Monaco had chances at scoring, with Rony Lopes and Kamil Gilk going close after 22 minutes.

The best chance of a goal for Monaco was when they were given a penalty after 69 minutes. However, Captain Radamel Falcao’s shot was blocked by Lille goalie Mike Maignan, denying the lead to the home side.

Monaco keeper Benaglio had a good evening, saving a possible game-changer in the 74th minute. As a consequence of Monaco’s failure to win at home, PSG have taken a two-point lead after two games in France’s Ligue 1.

Monegasque broadcaster TMC has confirmed to esctoday.com that Monaco will not return to the Eurovision Song Contest in 2019 in Israel. This will be the principality’s thirteenth consecutive year of non-participation.

One key reason is possibly that the Monegasque broadcaster is no longer a public broadcaster. Indeed, whilst TMC remains a European Broadcasting Union member, the channel is part of the TF1 group. The TF1 group is the largest private French broadcaster and owns 80 percent of the channel, with the remaining 20 percent belonging to the Principality. Now, TMC focuses on broadcasting French programmes to the French public.

Monaco won the Eurovision Song Contest once, in 1971. Parisian-born singer Séverine represented the Principality with the song Un banc, un arbre, une rue. Scoring 128 points, Séverine took victory by 12 points ahead of second-placed Karina from Spain.

Monaco made its debut in the contest in 1959, finishing 11th and last. However, Monaco was largely successful at the contest, only placing outside the top ten on five occasions between 1959 and 1979. In 1980, TMC withdrew from the contest, not returning until 2004.