Snoop Dogg swaps West Coast beats for Welsh dreams in Swansea investment
American rapper and producer Snoop Dogg has become an investor with Welsh side Swansea City, the Championship club said on Thursday, with the songwriter joining Croatian midfielder Luka Modric as a co-owner.
The news comes just days after Snoop Dogg helped launch Swansea's new home jersey which had fuelled speculation that the hip-hop artist would have an even bigger involvement with the club.
"My love of football is well known, but it feels special to me that I make my move into club ownership with Swansea City," Snoop Dogg said on the club's website.
"The story of the club and the area really struck a chord with me. This is a proud, working class city and club. An underdog that bites back, just like me."
In April, Modric joined American investors Andy Coleman, Brett Cravatt, Nigel Morris and Jason Cohen in the Swansea ownership structure, and the club will hope that the latest investor can help boost their global standing.
Snoop Dogg may have arrived on the scene asking 'Who am I? (What's My Name?), but since then the 53-year-old has become one of the biggest names in the music world.
"Snoop's colossal global fanbase and audience will certainly help us do that," Swansea's ownership group said.
Top stories
Swipe. Select. Stay informed.
Singapore Driverless bus in Sentosa gets green light to run without safety officer in first for S'pore
World US strikes destroyed only one of three Iranian nuclear sites, says new report
Business 5 things to know about Kuok Hui Kwong, tycoon Robert Kuok's daughter and Shangri-La Asia head honcho
Asia Air India probe into Boeing 787 fuel control switches finds no issues
Singapore Man charged over manufacturing DIY Kpods at Yishun home; first such case in Singapore
Singapore Sex first, then you can sell my flat: Women property agents fend off indecent proposals and harassment
Singapore Two women jailed for submitting fake university certificates to MOM for employment passes
Singapore Fatal abuse of Myanmar maid in Bishan: Traffic Police officer sentenced to 10 years' jail
"He has made clear to us throughout this process just how excited he is at the prospect of joining the club.
"Snoop has openly shared his love of football and his desire to be involved in the game, and we expect his involvement to support us putting as competitive a team as possible out on the field."
Snoop Dogg and Modric join the club as they look to come through financial difficulties after they posted a pre-tax loss of 15.2 million pounds ($20.39 million) in the latest financial year.
Swansea will be joined in English football's second tier next season by fellow Welsh club Wrexham, who have risen from the doldrums of the National League under the ownership of Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney.
Wrexham have risen to prominence under their Hollywood owners, and their Welcome to Wrexham TV series has brought them to a global audience, and perhaps Swansea may consider making a 'Doggumentary' of their own. REUTERS
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Straits Times
17 hours ago
- Straits Times
Singapore's Chiral Comics partners Archie Comics for exclusive SG60 book cover
Find out what's new on ST website and app. The SG60 exclusive variant cover will be limited to 300 copies worldwide. SINGAPORE – Home-grown outfit Chiral Comics has teamed up with American comic book publisher Archie Comics to launch a Singapore-themed variant cover for the first issue of Betty & Veronica: Summer Fun In The Sun. The exclusive book cover – where main character Archie dons an 'I Love SG' shirt while his best friend Jughead munches on durian – features the characters from the popular franchise (1942 to present) exploring the country's iconic Gardens by the Bay. It is limited to 300 copies worldwide. Priced at $25.55 each, pre-orders started on July 19 at . Select Singapore comics retailers like Kalibak Komiks and 1to3 Comics will also carry it. This SG60 book cover collaboration involves local comic artist Kang Jing, who was the penciler and inker, and Italy-based freelance comic colourist Daniele Caramanico, who did the colouring. Kang established Chiral Comics, a Singapore-based art studio which specialises in comic book publishing and visual storytelling, in 2021, and reportedly started working on the Archies project in April 2025. The 31-year-old, who has been sketching anime characters since he was six, began his comics career in 2019. His debut series The World My Arena (2021 to 2022) has since been adapted into an animated video, and other notable works include bilingual webcomic series Save Me From Chloe (2021) and Zhao (2023), an original wuxia comic series. Kang has also worked on seven Star Wars-themed projects with Topps, an American trading card manufacturer. And in 2024, he illustrated a Singapore-themed variant cover featuring the Singapore skyline for the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers #122 comic. All 525 copies released at comic convention Singapore Comic Con 2024 were sold out.
Straits Times
20 hours ago
- Straits Times
What Superman's pet Krypto owes to director James Gunn's badly behaved rescue dog
Krypto the superdog (left) in Superman is inspired and modelled after director James Gunn's dog Ozu. NEW YORK – About three years ago, American writer-director James Gunn was trying to figure out the arc of what would become his new blockbuster Superman. Then he adopted a dog. He named the scruffy rescue Ozu, after Yasujiro Ozu, the Japanese film-maker known for his serene works. At about eight months old, Ozu the dog was not at all peaceful. After surviving a hoarding situation, it was fearful of humans and intensely destructive. He chewed up furniture, shoes and even a US$10,000 (S$12,800) computer. He also ate a tampon out of a wastebasket , necessitating a trip to the vet. Gunn realised that if Ozu had been superpowered, the damage would have been even worse. 'It was where Superman the movie came together for me,' he said in a video call. The 58-year-old decided that his version of Superman would have not just a dog, but a bad dog who could fly. He wrote the opening sequence in which Superman (David Corenswet), defeated for the first time, calls out to the canine Krypto to help drag him to the Fortress of Solitude. Top stories Swipe. Select. Stay informed. Singapore 1 in 3 vapes here laced with etomidate; MOH working with MHA to list it as illegal drug: Ong Ye Kung Singapore HSA extends hotline hours, launches new platform to report vaping offences Singapore Tampines regional centre set to get more homes, offices and public amenities Multimedia How to make the most out of small homes in Singapore Life US tech CEO Andy Byron resigns after viral Coldplay 'kiss cam' video Asia From toy to threat: 'Killer kites' bring chaos to Indonesian airspace Opinion I thought I was a 'chill' parent. Then came P1 registration Singapore 'God and government are the only things beyond our control,' says Group CEO Krypto – who, like Ozu, is poorly behaved – jumps all over his master, seemingly causing more pain before doing his duty. Superman, which also stars Nicholas Hoult as the Man of Steel's nemesis Lex Luthor and Rachel Brosnahan as intrepid reporter Lois Lane, is now showing in cinemas. 'The universe we normally see Superman living in in movies is usually this lone, serious superhero and then people and then that's it,' Gunn said. 'This Superman exists in a different sort of universe where there are flying dogs.' But Ozu served as more than just inspiration. Gunn's pup also became the physical model for Krypto, who is computer-generated so he can do things like soar through the sky and attack villains. Krypto is a little bigger than Ozu and has white fur instead of grey , but otherwise he is a dead ringer. Although Gunn's version of Krypto owes everything to Ozu, Krypto has a long history in comic books. He first appeared in 1955, and while he has never shown up in any of Superman's live-action big-screen outings, he was voiced by American actor Dwayne Johnson in the animated film DC League Of Super-Pets (2022). Gunn does not get deep into Krypto lore in Superman, but he does have plans for him, including a starring role in 2026's Supergirl, which is based on the comic Supergirl: Woman Of Tomorrow (2021 to 2022). Krypto features prominently in that tale. Because Gunn wanted Krypto to resemble his own pet as closely as possible, the first step involved a 3D scan of Ozu. Ozu, who is now better behaved than he used to be, 'despised' the process, the film-maker said, explaining: 'He has to stand on this table and then there's a globe of cameras surrounding him. They take pictures and we kind of move him around a little bit, and it gets every angle of him.' Though Ozu was initially wary of humans, he immediately befriended Gunn's cat, and like any good owner, Gunn had a plethora of videos of his pets acting cute. He handed those over to the visual effects artists. 'I have tons of videos of them playing,' he said. 'In fact, when Krypto is jumping on Superman at the beginning of the movie, that's all based on footage of him playing with my cat.' Gunn ultimately worked with three VFX companies to develop Krypto, but mainly relied on Framestore, which was also responsible for creating another crucial furry character, Rocket Raccoon, in the director's Guardians Of The Galaxy (2014 to 2023) movies. With Krypto, the biggest challenge was figuring out how to depict him flying. 'At first, it kept looking like he was running in the air and it looked dumb,' Gunn said, adding: 'It was getting the right amount of motion with his legs and he was flying. It just took a lot of trial and error.' On set, the actors playing opposite Krypto occasionally just had to imagine he was there, miming as if interacting with a dog. In other instances, a 'series of very small women' played Krypto, Gunn said. But sometimes, a real dog was present. Her name was Jolene, and they would play the 1973 song by American country legend Dolly Parton every time she arrived. 'She had white fur and we would use that as a reference for the lighting so we knew what a white dog would look like in the area,' Gunn said. As for the sounds Krypto makes, Gunn once again went back to Ozu and recorded him for reference. But Gunn also did not want to overdo it. 'The sound people know this: It's my pet peeve that every time an animal is on-screen, they make it make a sound. The truth is, dogs are funny because, for the most part, they are Buster Keaton,' said DC Studios' co-CEO, referring to the American silent film star. As a dog lover, Gunn aimed to make sure the way Krypto cranes his neck, wags his tail or gets easily distracted was portrayed accurately. The fact that he is terribly behaved makes Superman's loyalty to him all the more impactful in perilous situations, Gunn said. 'Superman is such a compassionate person that he's worried about the dog being scared,' Gunn said. 'That's the thing that upsets him: The dog is scared. And we've only seen the dog give him grief. I think it's really important that Superman is tuned into his own sense of compassion in that way.' Ozu, meanwhile, seems to have complicated feelings regarding his debut as the model for a superhero. Gunn posted a video on Instagram of Ozu barking at Krypto. This, he said, happened repeatedly during the editing process. 'He comes darting from the other side of the house and runs into the office so he can bark at Krypto,' Gunn said. 'For two years, he barked at Krypto on-screen.' NYTIMES Superman is showing in Singapore cinemas.
Straits Times
a day ago
- Straits Times
US tech CEO in viral Coldplay ‘kiss cam' video resigns
Find out what's new on ST website and app. Astronomer CEO Andy Byron reportedly seen in kiss cam footage locked in an embrace with Ms Kristin Cabot during a July 16 Coldplay concert in Boston. NEW YORK - The CEO of an American tech company resigned July 19 after a video of him embracing an alleged colleague at a Coldplay concert went viral and fuelled relentless memes. 'Our leaders are expected to set the standard in both conduct and accountability, and recently, that standard was not met,' New York-based Astronomer said in a statement shared on LinkedIn. 'Andy Byron has tendered his resignation,' the firm said, after previously launching an investigation. During a Coldplay concert in Foxborough, Massachusetts on July 16, the jumbotron zoomed in on a man and a woman embracing in the stands. But the canoodling pair appeared shocked and horrified when they spotted themselves on the big screen, with the man ducking out of frame and the woman hiding her face. 'Uh-oh, what? Either they're having an affair or they're just very shy,' joked Coldplay frontman Chris Martin. Within hours, internet sleuths tracked down the man as Astronomer CEO Andy Byron and said the woman was the company's chief people officer, Kristin Cabot, alleging that the two were having a not-so-discreet affair. The video has garnered millions of views on TikTok and other social media, giving rise to memes discussing everything from the folly of having an affair at a Coldplay concert, to the hypocrisy of an HR representative seemingly caught in a workplace relationship. 'The craziest thing is about the Astronomer CEO cheating scandal is it was the HR lady,' said one X user. 'The person who would warn you against fraternising with coworkers.' Furry mascots of the Philadelphia Phillies Major League Baseball team jumped on the trend and recreated the scene for the jumbotron at a game after the video went viral. However an apology statement attributed to Mr Byron which spread rapidly online was fake and appeared to have originated from a parody account. AFP
