Cannon Fodder: Deficits

ENGLAND:

Stan Kroenke has purchased two more shares of Arsenal, bringing his holdings up to 67%.

The man who presided over the Bradford fire inquiry says that a new inquiry would be pointless.

Bournemouth, who seven years ago were literally five minutes from being liquidated after a second stint in administration, are the (presumptive) newest members of the 2015-16 Premier League, after a 3-0 win over Bolton Wanderers.  They're only three points ahead of third-placed Middlesbrough, but with a 19 point goal difference advantage, automatic promotion is pretty much theirs. Unless, of course, Charlton Athletic do something about that goal difference this weekend.

The headline says San Francisco, but Manchester United and Barcelona will actually be playing a preseason friendly at Levi's Stadium in San Jose, which is not San Francisco.

Steven Thompson, the St. Mirren player who once sliced his hand open cutting an apple, impaled a teammate at training for some unknown reason.

EUROPE:

Another match fixing scandal - wait, no! Don't get bored yet! This one's not in Italy! It's in Spain! The Spanish league has long been suspected of informally "arranging" matches late in the season when there's little at stake for one of the participants in the match, and this seems to be an attempt to stop that practice.

Gareth Bale, who really does not photograph well, should be fit for Real Madrid's Champions League semi final with Juventus next week.

Berlin authorities have apologized after making Jewish fans of Ingolstadt remove an Israeli flag they were displayingat Union Berlin's stadium in support of Ingolstadt player Almog Cohen.

MLS/US:

The Montreal Impact are level at 1-1 going in to the second leg of the CONCACAF Champions League final tomorrow. The one thing they didn't have lined up for that match? A goalkeeper, after their regular keeper Evan Busch was carded and subsequently suspended in the first leg, and their backup keeper is cup-tied because he played for Sporting KC in the CCL last MLS season. They've asked about teams loaning almost every keeper from Nick Rimando to Stefan Frei, and they finally settled on Kristian Nicht of Indy Eleven.

Leading up to this summer's CONCACAF Gold Cup, is the US or Mexico a better side?

Boise, as you may or may not know, has one of the largest Basque expat communities outside Europe. That heritage will be celebrated this summer with the Basque Friendly, featuring Athletic Bilbao and Mexico's Club Tijuana.

Don Garber wants MLS to grow past its current size of 20 active teams (and four starting play within a few years). He gave no definite number or timeline, but did say that promotion and relegation are not part of MLS' future.

MLS is North America's most diverse sports league, with players from 58 different countries.