Riches

LAFC has won an MLS Cup and played in two CONCACAF Champions League finals.

None of those games were worth as much as the team’s upcoming match.

Literally.

Next up for LAFC is the $10-Million Game, in which it will play Mexico’s Club América on Saturday at Banc of California to determine the final entrant in the Club World Cup. The 32-team tournament, which will be staged across the United States from mid-June to mid-July, has a record-breaking billion-dollar prize pool.

By simply qualifying for the event and playing in three group-stage matches, LAFC would be entitled to a participation fee of $9.55 million.

That might not be considered a significant prize for the Dodgers or Lakers, but it’s a major bounty for LAFC, which had a payroll of about $20 million last season.

“We know what’s at stake,” LAFC co-president John Thorrington said.

Imagine that, a Major League Soccer team playing a game with real consequences. The stakes are unusually high for a team in a league in which 18 of 30 teams reach the postseason and the threat of relegation is non-existent.

Real money will be on the line.

That’s money that could go toward covering the transfer fee or salary of the team’s next signature player, as one of LAFC’s three designated-player slots could open this summer.

Thorrington preferred to emphasize the symbolic importance of LAFC reaching the Club World Cup, how it would move the team one step closer to its long-stated ambition of becoming a global brand.

“The conversation here is not dominated by the financial benefit here, but rather the competitive opportunity that this game and the tournament present,” Thorrington said.

If LAFC advances to the Club World Cup, its opening game will be against Chelsea of the English Premier League. The other group-stage games would be against ES Tunis of Tunisia and Flamengo of Brazil.

“I think it would be something special,” defender Eddie Segura said in Spanish.

The tournament could also be a wake-up call for MLS, which has two other teams in the competition in Inter Miami and the Seattle Sounders. The league has a salary cap, as well as paint-by-numbers roster compliance rules that permit minimal flexibility on how its teams can spend money. Soccer is a sport in which teams are only as good as their weakest links, but the regulations force clubs to construct top-heavy rosters.

As it was, the financial restrictions were already handicapping MLS teams in its competitions against its Mexican counterparts, with LAFC relying on its smarts instead of the economic might of its deep-pocketed owners to reach two Champions League finals. Now, MLS teams will be taking on opponents with virtually unlimited budgets. Just two years ago, Chelsea spent more than a billion dollars buying players in a single transfer window.

The Club World Cup’s cash prizes offer MLS a powerful incentive to loosen its rules. Group-stage wins are worth $2 million each. Teams will be paid $7.5 million for reaching the round of 16. The champion will take home more than $100 million.

The payouts could also force MLS to make changes to its collective bargaining agreement, which was signed when the Club World Cup was still a seven-team tournament. Under the current CBA, LAFC’s players would divide $1 million, with the remainder of the $9.55 million participation fee staying with the club.

Segura said the players are engaged in talks over their compensation.

“The club would benefit a lot, but I hope that we as players, as the ones who are there giving everything, will also have a chance to benefit,” Segura said.

The upcoming game has also offered LAFC a firsthand view of FIFA’s operations.

LAFC’s and Club América’s opportunity came at the expense of León, which was removed from the Club World Cup field because it was owned by the same group that owned another Mexican team in the tournament, Pachuca.

León qualified for the tournament by defeating LAFC in the 2023 CONCACAF Champions League final. Rather than award León’s place to LAFC, FIFA basically invented a play-in game out of thin air, calling on LAFC to take on Club América, which was the region’s highest-ranked team that wasn’t already in the tournament.

LAFC was at least granted a chance. The Galaxy won the MLS Cup last season, but Inter Miami received the place reserved for the host nation before the MLS playoffs even started. The purported reason was that Inter Miami had the league’s best regular-season record. However, the widespread suspicion was that FIFA wanted Lionel Messi in the tournament.

After all, money is what is driving this tournament and money is what is driving the sport.

The Gran Morgu project may transform Suriname’s economy, rivalling oil-rich neighbour Guyana by 2028, officials predict.

Voters in Suriname, which is on the cusp of a much anticipated oil boom, have begun to elect a new parliament, which will subsequently choose the next president of the smallest nation in South America.

Sunday’s elections have already been marked by fraud allegations and have seen little debate about what the next government, which will hold power until 2030, should do with income from the offshore oil and gas Gran Morgu project. It is to begin production in 2028.

Experts said Suriname, a country beset by poverty and rampant inflation, is projected to make billions of dollars in the coming decade or two from recently discovered offshore crude deposits.

The project, led by TotalEnergies, is Suriname’s first major offshore effort. The former Dutch colony, independent since 1975, discovered reserves that may allow it to compete with neighbouring Guyana – whose economy grew 43.6 percent last year – as a prominent producer.

“It will be a huge amount of income for the country,” President Chan Santokhi told the AFP news agency this week. “We are now able … to do more for our people, so that everyone can be part of the growth of the nation.”

Santokhi is constitutionally eligible for a second term, but with no single party in a clear lead in the elections, pollsters are not predicting the outcome.

The party with the most seats will lead Suriname’s next government, likely through a coalition with smaller parties, but negotiations and the choosing of a new president are expected to take weeks.

Fourteen parties are taking part in the elections, including Santokhi’s centrist Progressive Reform Party and the leftist National Democratic Party of deceased former coup leader and elected President Desi Bouterse.

Also in the running is the centre-left General Liberation and Development Party of Vice President Ronnie Brunswijk, a former rebel who fought against Bouterse’s government in the 1980s.

Provisional results are expected by late Sunday.

Suriname – a diverse country made up of descendants of people from India, Indonesia, China, the Netherlands, Indigenous groups and enslaved Africans – will mark the 50th anniversary of its independence from the Netherlands in November.

Since independence, it has looked increasingly towards China as a political ally and trading partner and in 2019 became one of the first Latin American countries to join the Asian giant’s Belt and Road infrastructure drive.

United States Secretary of State Marco Rubio made a stopover in Suriname in March on a regional tour aimed at countering China’s growing influence in the region.

More than 90 percent of the country is covered in forest, and it is one of few in the world with a negative carbon footprint.

Santokhi insisted this status is not in danger and Suriname can use its oil windfall “for the transition towards the green energy which we need, also because we know the fossil energy is limited”.

“It will be gone after 40 years.”

Emmerdale newcomer Bradley Riches, who plays Lewis Barton, appeared on Friday’s episode of Lorraine

Emmerdale’s newcomer Bradley Riches became tearful during Friday’s Lorraine when fill-in presenter Christine Lampard addressed a touching detail.

The 23-year-old Heartstopper actor, who has just entered the ITV soap as Ross Barton’s long-lost half-brother Lewis Barton, received a heartwarming acknowledgement from guest host Christine, 46.

She highlighted: “This [joining Emmerdale] is particularly special because it was your late grandad Peter’s favourite soap.”

As an image of his grandad Peter momentarily graced the screen, Christine remarked: “This was the one, he used to talk about it all the time and here you are starring in something that was so special to him.”

Visibly moved, Bradley struggled to maintain composure, confessing: “I don’t want to get emotional!” which prompted Christine’s warm response: “No, no, I understand. It’s such a lovely lovely thing, it means so much to all of you then.”

In reply, Bradley shared: “I feel like it was one of those things he passed away obviously when I was in Big Brother and it was like a whole year of, I feel like I didn’t get a full goodbye, so when this came up I was like: ‘Maybe this is him saying you’re doing great.'”, reports Leicestershire Live.

Christine responded with words of encouragement: “This is it and I’ve got your back. I’m supporting every single thing that you’re doing.”

Moving on, Christine also noted: “You took your mum and dad on set too. How did that go?”

Bradley confessed: “It was one of those things that was like I thought I would really enjoy it while I was filming but I was doing the rehearsal and I just looked around the corner.

“My mum and dad were like this, I was like get away, they obviously saw the set and it was great for them as well to be there.”

This week’s drama in Emmerdale saw Moira Dingle stumble upon a letter addressed to ‘The Family of Emma Barton. ‘ She later handed it to Ross, who discovered he had an unknown brother named Lewis.

When Ross met Lewis, he found himself tiptoeing around their family history, careful not to spill the dark secrets surrounding their mother Emma.

The meet-up turned tense as both brothers struggled to discuss their past without causing distress. Ultimately, Ross chose to leave, upsetting Lewis in the process.

Ross later told Moira they mutually agreed to forego any attempt at rekindling family ties… but could there be more to Lewis’ story?

Emmerdale continues every weeknight at 7:30pm on ITV and ITV X with hour-long specials on Thursday.