Kia ora, Talofa, Ma’lelei, Bula, Aloha and Welcome to Season 09 Episode 59 of Breakfast Bites, by TEIVOVOdigital.com – a wrap of Pasifika people’s sports news, on a sunny and bright Wednesday morning 05 June 2024.
 
Coming to you with tons of hanisi from the 180th meridian, in the middle of the blue continent.
 
In rugby league: The NRL’s 18th team in Papua New Guinea appears to be little more than a formality at this point but there is growing push-back in Australia, after Sydney radio 2GB’s Ben Fordham revealed a PNG team is expected to be funded by Australia at A$600Million over the next 10 years.

Australian Prime Minster Anthony Albanese has been trumpeting a Papua New Guinea team since August 2023 to join the NRL as its 18th team, pledging to put money into making the move viable.

But NRL BIG boss man, Peter V’landys told News Corp yesterday: “It is certainly premature. It hasn’t gone to cabinet to start with and our board hasn’t signed off on it, so there’s no agreement.

“There’s nothing concrete at this stage.

“I was surprised as to how this speculation started, because it certainly didn’t come from the NRL.”
So place your bets on ORIGIN 01 ladies & gentlemen – NOT on PNG being the 18th NRL team.
In Football: Kylian Mbappe has signed a five-year deal to move to Real Madrid from Paris Saint-Germain on Monday and hailed the move as a “dream come true”.

According to the BBC, he will earn US$16.5Million, plus a US$163M signing bonus paid over the five years.

Mbappe’s last contract with PSG, signed in 2022, was a two-year deal worth US$79.2Million with loyalty bonus of a similar amount and a signing-on fee of US$163M.

And in SportsBiz: Since 2020, major Michael Jordan memorabilia items have smashed sports memorabilia sales records.
 
This MJ surge was boosted by “The Last Dance”, which averaged 5.6 million viewers per episode, making it ESPN’s most-watched documentary of all time.
 
In January 2023, his jersey from Game 1 of the 1998 NBA Finals sold for US$10.1Million, becoming the most valuable Jordan item ever sold at auction and setting a record for game-worn sports memorabilia.

In February 2024, a set of six individual shoes, one from each of Jordan’s title-clinching games, sold for US$8M in another auction.

I wonder if they smell?
 
And that’s a wrap!
 
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Mahalo and Ka kite; for TEIVOVOdigital.com, I’m Culden Kamea tanking you all too mass for all your love and support.
 
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