Man City top salary chart

Manchester City are the best-paid sports team in the world, with average first-team pay a whopping £5.3m a year, or £102,653 per week according to a new report that compares global earnings in the most popular leagues.
Five Premier League sides make the top 20 on the list, with Liverpool - City’s title showdown opponents from Sunday - in 20th place, earning an average of £3.4m per man per year.
Manchester United are at No 8 on £4.3m per man per year, Champions League semi-finalists Chelsea are at No 10 (nearly £4m) and Arsenal are at No 11 (£3.9m).

 

High earners: Manchester City have topped a global sports salary list, with their squad paid £5.3m a year

Big spender: City owner Sheik Mansour has invested hundreds of millions into making them title challengers

Blank cheque: Manuel Pellegrini could sign pretty much any player in the world for City

  

Two giants from American baseball, the New York Yankees and the LA Dodgers, as well as the two giants of Spanish football, Real Madrid and Barcelona, fill out the top five behind City.
The top 10 also includes the Brooklyn Nets of the NBA (at No 6), Bayern Munich (No 7), and the Chicago Bulls of the NBA (No 9).
The Global Sports Salaries Survey (GSSS), produced for ESPN The Magazine in the USA, has been tracking comparative pay at major sports teams for five years.
City players were earning an average of just under £1.5m a year each when Sheik Mansour arrived in 2008 but their pay has more than trebled in the six years of his ownership.
Chelsea have also seen their wages and fortunes soar since Roman Abramovich arrived at Stamford Bridge in 2003 but foreign sugar-daddy ownership is not restricted to elite European football. 

Big hitters: The New York Yankees baseball team ranked second on the earners' list

Coining it in: The Los Angeles Dodgers baseball team are third on the salary list with an average annual pay of £5.1m but they moved down from second place last year

The Brooklyn Nets were bought in 2010 by one of Abramovich’s fellow Russian billionaires, Mikhail Prokhorov.
Not only is Prokhorov footing the Nets’ $102m (around £61m) total payroll in 2013-14, or £4.5m per player this year, but he will need to pay an additional $70m (around £42m) or thereabouts in luxury tax for exceeding the NBA’s wage cap.

On the list: Chelsea were 10th in the rankings with a £3.9m wage bill and still have a chance of winning the Premier League title this season

Wealth: Roman Abramovich has poured millions into Chelsea since he became owner in 2003

Close call: Arsenal are just behind Chelsea in the survey. They advanced to the final of the FA Cup at the weekend, beating Wigan on penalties at Wembley

Sneaking in: Liverpool came in 20th in the salary list with an annual spend of £3.4m on wages each year. That could increase if they win their first league title in 24 years next month

Overpaid? Manchester United came in eighth in the list but have fallen short in the Premier League and Champions League this season

The GSSS looks solely at earnings for playing sport, not for endorsements or other extra-curricular activities. The 2014 report considers 294 teams in 15 leagues in 12 countries across seven different sports: football, baseball, basketball, gridiron, cricket, ice hockey and Aussie Rules football.
The report looks at numbers from either current or most recently completed seasons, depending on availability of accounts and other information.
The NBA is the highest-paying league as a whole, with 441 players at 30 teams in the 2013-14 season earning an average of £2.98m per year each.
The Premier League is the best paying football league in the world, with the average annual pay at £2.27m per player.

THE WORLD'S BEST PAID SPORTS TEAM BY AVERAGE FIRST-TEAM SALARY

RANK (LAST YEAR)	TEAM	LEAGUE	AV. ANNUAL PAY (WEEKLY)
1 (1)	Manchester City	Premier League	£5,337,944 (£102,653)
2 (5)	New York Yankees	MLB	£5,286,628 (£101,666)
3 (2)	Los Angeles Dodgers	MLB	£5,119,701 (£98,456)
4 (3)	Real Madrid	La Liga	£4,993,393 (£96,027)
5 (4)	Barcelona	La Liga	£4,901,327 (£94,256)
6 (16)	Brooklyn Nets	NBA	£4,485,019 (£86,250)
7 (9)	Bayern Munich	Bundesliga	£4,402,905 (£84,671)
8 (12)	Manchester United	Premier League	£4,322,251 (£83,120)
9 (19)	Chicago Bulls	NBA	£3,985,706 (£76,648)
10 (8)	Chelsea	Premier League	£3,984,536 (£76,626)
11 (15)	Arsenal	Premier League	£3,901,923 (£75,037)
12 (20)	New York Knicks	NBA	£3,862,191 (£74,273)
13 (14)	Detroit Tigers	MLB	£3,833,510 (£73,721)
14 (11)	Philadelphia Phillies	MLB	£3,811,638 (£73,301)
15 (22)	Boston Red Sox	MLB	£3,763,451 (£72,374)
16 (17)	Miami Heat	NBA	£3,665,215 (£70,485)
17 (23)	San Francisco Giants	MLB	£3,613,741 (£69,495)
18 (35)	Juventus	Serie A	£3,512,696 (£67,552)
19 (7)	LA Lakers	NBA	£3,411,402 (£65,604)
20 (21)	Liverpool	Premier League	£3,403,783 (£65,457)

Barcelona stars earn £25m over five years...

Barcelona are out of the Champions League and far from a shoo-in for the La Liga title but at least even the average players in the Nou Camp squad are unlikely to worry about money ever again.
A new report on global pay in sport has found an average first-team Barca player has earned £24,995,540 over the past five years, which is more than the average five-year pay at any team in world sport.
The eye-watering sums on offer in elite European football and in the major sports leagues of America effectively mean that a single five-year deal should provide enough money to set up a player for life.

Big money: The average Barcelona player earns £25million over five years, which is more than the average five-year pay at any team in world sport

No worries: Signing a five-year deal with a major sports team should set up a player for life

Payday: Gareth Bale and his Real Madrid team-mates earn just over half a million less than rivals Barcelona over 5 years

 

Barcelona’s La Liga rivals have paid the next most on average in the past five years: £24.4m per player on average, followed by the New York Yankees of Major League baseball (£23.6m) and then Manchester City (£20.8m) and Chelsea (£20.4m) of the Premier League.
Manchester United, Arsenal and Liverpool all make it into the top 20 alongside globally famous teams such as the LA Lakers of the NBA and the Boston Red Sox baseball team - who are owned, like Liverpool, by John W Henry’s Fenway Sports Group.
The numbers are published today as part of the Global Sports Salaries Survey (GSSS) produced for ESPN The Magazine in the USA. The report looks solely at earnings for playing sport, not for endorsements or other extra-curricular activities.
The five-year earnings list highlights some counter-intuitive findings, including how relatively poorly the average player in the NFL in America is paid. There is a general perception that NFL stars, in an industry awash with cash, all earn bumper pay packets. The reality is a few players on each team earn huge money but many earn ‘only’ hundreds of thousands of dollars per year.
As a result, the best paid NFL team over five years, the Dallas Cowboys, appear only at No93 in the five-year list, with an average player earning ‘only’ £7.8m over five years. 
The Cowboys are one place below Everton (£7.87m over five years per average player) and 20 places lower than the best paying NHL ice-hockey team, the Chicago Blackhawks (£9.1m per average player over five years).

Owner: The LA Lakers, Boston Red Sox and Liverpool - owned by John W Henry's Fenay Sports Group - all made it into the top 20

High five: The average player playing for the New York Yankees earns £23.5m over 5 years

 

Fall: The LA lakers have seen a decrease in the difference between earnings in 2010 and 2014

Best paying sports teams in the world based on average players’ total salary over five years

 

That's cool! The Finnish SnowHotel

Located on the Arctic Circle and built entirely of snow, you would expect this hotel to be quite chilly - but it is actually a constant zero degrees once you're inside.
The SnowHotel in the Finnish town of Rovaniemi is built each year for the winter season, providing a quiet, snowy escape for tourists.
And if you manage to survive a night in your chilly room you can come away with a 'diploma' on spending the night in Arctic conditions.
While fleece-lined sleeping bags are there to keep out the chill, the hotel also has traditional Finnish saunas to truly help guests thaw out.
And if you fancy looking out for the Northern Lights, you can stay warm by sitting in the outdoor hot tub and sipping a rum toddy.
And if you don't fancy a night in the hotel, you could always head further north and try your own glass igloo - the newly-built accommodation is in Kakslauttanen, even further north into the Arctic Circle.
The unusual transparent mounds emerge from the snow, offering a panoramic view of the night sky, ensuring you'll never miss a chance to spot the Northern Lights and have been built in response to booming tourism to the remote area.
The 15 Arctic Igloos use thermal glass and heated floors so you aren't exposed to the elements and you can ever get breakfast served to the igloo the following morning, meaning you don't have to set foot outside.

Check in, chill out: The cool hotel offers a 'diploma' to anyone who manages an overnight stay

Would you like ice with that? The restaurants serve a mixture of different dishes and warming drinks, all designed to keep out the cold

Thrills and chills: While the hotel may look chilly, apparently its interior temperature remains at a 'balmy' zero degrees

Cool customer: Two guests enjoy the relative protection from the elements offered by the hotel, while fur throws on the bar seats keep diners warm too

Camping out: The glass igloos offer panoramic views of the night sky

Warm welcome: The igloos use thermal glass and have heated floors to make an overnight stay more comfortable

Write caption here

Room for romance: Icy decor doesn't mean everything has to be bland and white, this room glows red to welcome chilly guests

In the black: The thermometer on the SnowHotel shows a warm (ish) zero degrees inside

Kereta Kebal Canggih

Jam Bertatah Berlian

Heaven from above: NASA's stunning images

Most people daydream about tropical getaways through Google searches and beach resort advertisements, but the astronauts at the International Space Station get a slightly different view when they browse holiday destinations.
NASA has released remarkable images of some of the world's sunniest tropical islands as viewed from their satellites and International Space Statio, including French Polynesia, Hawaii, the British Virgin Islands and Marlon Brando's old holiday home.
It is estimated that there are up to 400,000 islands worldwide, and some, like the U.S. state of Hawaii have long been holiday destinations, while others, like the Tuamotu Archipelago in French Polynesia, which primarily exports vanilla, has seen recent growth in tourism since getting its first airport in 1999.

Hot stuff: NASA has taken studding God's-eye view photographs of the Earth's tropical islands, including Atafu Atoll, Tokelau, in the Southern Pacific Ocean

Born on the first day: Previously called Caroline Island, Millennium Island in Kiribati is the first to enter a new year due to the International Date Line, and was renamed as it was the first to see the year 2000

Home of a legend: The atoll of Teti'aroa in French Polynesia is a privately owned island which once belonged to Marlon Brando

Heart of the ocean: The small atoll of Maupiti, in French Polynesia, home to just over 1,200 people, is almost shaped like a heart and has a volcanic island in the middle

bahama mama: Cat Island in the Bahamas was long thought to have been the first island Christopher Columbus reached when he sailed to the Americas

Island dreams: O'ahu is the third largest of the Hawaiian Islands, yet partly as a result of being home to the state capital Honolulu, it is the most populous of the islands in the U.S. state of Hawaii

Take me to Tahiti: The island of Tahiti is home to the University of French Polynesia as well as a museum dedicated to the works of French artist Paul Gauguin

Surf's up: The largest and the southeastern-most of the Hawaiian islands, Hawaii, has moved on from sugarcane plantations and its economy is now mainly based around tourism

Nice view: This image taken by NASA last week shows a portion of the Florida Keys taken by Astronaut Rick Mastracchio from the International Space Station

Come fly with me: Mataiva island is a 6.2square mile coral atoll in the Tuamotu Archipelago in French Polynesia which primarily exports vanilla, but has seen a growth in tourism since getting its first airport in 1999

Protection: The Sea Turtle Beaches on Eastern St. Croix, in the U.S. Virgin Islands provide critical habitat for several of the world's seven species of sea turtles

Touched for the very first time: The British Virgin Islands are located in the Caribbean, to the east of Puerto Rico, and despite becoming autonomous in 1967, it's monarch is still Queen Elizabeth II

Think your school run is bad?

This parent is giving a whole new meaning to ‘school bag’ as he helps a class of primary pupils safely cross a river by taking them in a plastic bag.
When the children in Sam Lang village, Dien Bien Province, near Hanoi in northern Vietnam could not get to school due to spring floods, one father found an unorthodox solution.
As the nearby suspension bridge was out of action, he put the children in a plastic bag to keep them dry, and carried them across the flooded river.

Going in: This bizarre school run was filmed by a teacher in Sam Lang village, Dien Bien Province, near Hanoi in northern Vietnam during the spring floods

Bagged up: When the local river flooded, preventing the children from getting to school, one parent took them across in a plastic bag

Off we go: The unnamed parent took each and every one of the children across the river in the bag

His incredible devotion to the children’s education was filmed by their teacher Tong Thi Minh.
In the clip, one of the children’s fathers can be seen carefully wrapping up each child in a plastic bag before he launches himself neck deep into the raging torrent.
Once at the other side, the still dry child jumps out, before the man swims back to pick up another.
In the clip filmed last year, female teachers and students were seen waiting for their turn to traverse the Nam Po stream.

 

On dry land: Once a pupil got out of the bag on the other side, the parent returned to pick up another

Safe on the other side: Teacher Tong Thi Minh pictured with the class who were taken across the river in bags

Keep Calm and Carry On:The father, clearly devoted to the children's education, takes another student in a bag across the river

Vietnamese newspaper Tuoi Tre News said a local man was captured holding the bag in one hand and swimming across the water with the other hand despite the powerful currents.
Miss Minh told the newspaper: ‘It's normal. That's the only way to cross the stream because no bridge can stand floodwater.
‘I've taught here since September last year. At first, I did not know how to ford the stream so I had to follow what local villagers did later.’
According to Miss Minh, many parents in the village also bring their children to school that way to keep their uniforms dry when the area is flooded.

Staying 'safe': Despite everything parents tell you about not putting a plastic bag over your head, this parent ensures the bag is tied up tight

Staying afloat: The parent carried the bag in one hand and swam across with the children one by one

Ready for school: A girl getting out of the plastic bag the other side of the river in Sam Lang village, Dien Bien Province, near Hanoi