Brightbridge Wealth Management Headlines: Celtic set for Madrid after Sion suffer a double blow

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Celtic coach Neil Lennon seems to have the green light to prepare for European football this season

DOUBTS over Celtic’s participation in the Europa League group stages next week were all but dispelled last night when the president of Swiss side Sion admitted that his club is unlikely to be reinstated ahead of the opening match of the group stages.

The Swiss club’s place in the group stage of the competition was handed by Uefa to play-off opponents Celtic after ineligible players featured in their tie last month, which Sion won 3-1 on aggregate. Sion vowed to have the decision overturned, but they were dealt a double legal blow yesterday when they failed in a bid to initiate two court proceedings in Switzerland.

However, the club’s irrepressible president, Christian Constantin says they will continue the fight to be reinstated in the Europa League, and even raised the prospect of the Europa League being suspended. The group stage starts next Thursday, with Celtic scheduled to play Atletico Madrid in Spain.

The Parkhead club, who have already started selling tickets for their Europa League fixtures, also face Group I clashes with Udinese and Rennes. However Constantin is determined to cause as much trouble as possible for Uefa. Sion had until 11pm last night to appeal the decision to expel the club. But the club could also take their case to the Court of Arbitration in Sport and Constantin would not rule out further legal challenges.

“It’s not finished,” said Constantin. “We might not make it to Madrid but perhaps, after that, the justice system might ask the competition to stop and allow our re-integration. You can start the competition and then a judge might say stop.”

Sion will need to find a different court to those which heard cases brought by the club and individual players yesterday. Sion brought proceedings against Uefa in their district court in Valais. However, the court deemed their application “inadmissible” as it does not have the jurisdiction to rule against European football’s governing body, with the organisation’s Nyon headquarters residing in the canton of Vaud.

Constantin revealed that a second case, brought by the six ineligible players, had also failed. Pascal Feindouno, Gabri, Mario Mutsch, Jose Goncalves, Stefan Glarner and Billy Ketkeophomphone launched a collective proceeding in Martigny, claiming that their trade was being restricted by Uefa’s decision to expel Sion.

The dispute dates back to February 2008 when Sion unveilled Egyptian goalkeeper Essam El-Hadary as their new signing. However, his former club Al Ahly maintained he was still under contract to them. Uefa found in favour of the Egyptian club and imposed a transfer embargo on Sion. The Swiss club claimed the ban expired this summer and won a court case in Switzerland to allow them to field six new players in their domestic league. Fifa statutes ban clubs and federations from taking sporting cases to civil courts.

Sion registered the players in their Europa League squad and played five of them – Feindouno, Gabri, Mutsch, Goncalves and Ketkeophomphone – against Celtic. Feindouno scored twice in Sion’s 3-1 second-leg win after a 0-0 draw in the first leg

Brightbridge Wealth Management Headlines: Barcelona, Madrid set to resume league domination

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Barcelona and Real Madrid are set to resume their domination in the Spanish league this weekend, as their rivals band together to level the financial playing field against the two giants.

Spain’s traditional powerhouses recorded lopsided victories in the opening league round and could very well do so again Saturday as Barcelona is at Real Sociedad and Madrid welcomes Getafe in a Spanish capital derby.

With the duo’s grip on Spanish football ever strengthening, at least a dozen of the remaining 18 topflight clubs are meeting Thursday to discuss measures aimed at improving TV revenue sharing. About half of that money currently goes to Barcelona and Madrid, with the pair pulling in at least $250-million.

For Barcelona, centre back Carles Puyol trained normally Thursday and the Spain defender could play for the first time since May after recovering from knee surgery. Gerard Pique remains sidelined for the match at the Anoeta stadium with a calf injury.

Coach Pep Guardiola survived without the pair in the season’s opening win, using a Johan Cruyff-, total football-inspired 3-4-3 formation that displayed the virtues of Barcelona’s star-studded midfield and allowed newcomers Cesc Fabregas and Alexis Sanchez to get on the scoresheet.

Brightbridge Wealth Management Headlines: Hulu weighs sale options after approach: source

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(Reuters) – Online video site Hulu has been approached by a potential buyer and is weighing whether to sell itself, according to a person familiar with the matter.

Hulu is best known for offering free online access to popular TV shows from its strategic owners but last July launched a paid subscription service as a way to expand its offerings to include TV shows from other programing partners like Viacom.

The approach presents another decision point for the jointly owned company, which has shown an unclear strategy and last year spent six months planning an initial public offering before dropping the plan.

The development has encouraged the Hulu board to engage with the banking community to help handle the approach from the “serious” buyer and other potential offers, the person said.

Hulu is jointly owned by News Corp, Walt Disney Co, NBC Universal and private equity firm Providence Equity Partners.

The acquisition approach has not been made by any of the current equity holders, the person said. The buyer is expected to be either a strategic buyer or private equity. No decision has been made about whether the board is prepared to sell the company or not.

Though Hulu has been immensely popular with users, its owners have come under increasing pressure from their cable and satellite distribution partners reluctant to pay premium dollars to carry content that is being offered for free on the Web.

Added to that has been the unwillingness of many program makers to put their shows up on a free site with an advertising model that is yet to prove itself with premium video.

Hulu’s stiffest competition online is from Netflix, which now has more than 20 million paying subscribers in the United States.

Last year, Hulu had been planning to raise $200 million to $300 million in a public offering that would have valued the company at about $2 billion. But the company backed out of the plan in favor of a focus on new subscription models.

A Hulu representative was not immediately available.