Bundesliga side Eintracht Frankfurt press officer RUTH WAGNER will leave the club immediately to take on a new challenge. The 29-year-old had been with the club for five-and-a-half years. The club has not yet announced a replacement for Wagner (Eintracht Frankfurt). ... New League Championship side Aston Villa Owner TONY XIA blasted pundit IAN HOLLOWAY after he predicted the team would finish "a lowly 16th" in the Championship this season. The Chinese businessman bought Villa for £52M ($68.6M) earlier in the summer. He "was alerted to Holloway's prediction by a fan on Twitter." And he did not "hold back in his retort to the Sky Sports pundit," writing, "A failed player, failed manager and now f***ed pundit. Don't bother reading at all!" (London DAILY MAIL, 8/1). ... Leicester City striker JAMIE VARDY is in Hollywood with his wife REBEKAH "as he continues negotiations over a film adaptation of his rise from non-League prospect to Premier League champion." One Direction singer LOUIS TOMLINSON, meanwhile, "has been tipped to play Vardy" (DAILY MAIL, 8/1). ... World Rugby vice-Chair AGUSTIN PICHOT has been "voted the most influential figure in the game." The former Pumas captain, who "helped Argentina gain entry into the Rugby Championship and Super Rugby, tops a 50-strong list compiled by Rugby World." England head coach EDDIE JONES "comes second after masterminding a Grand Slam and 3-0 series whitewash of Australia in his first season in charge." New Zealand World Cup winning coach STEVE HANSEN, "who has just extended his contract with the All Blacks" until '19, is third (PA, 8/1).
LEGAL BATTLE: Mercedes F1 driver LEWIS HAMILTON "is fighting a legal war with an Italian builder" over the £3.5M ($4.6M), custom-built "Caribbean love nest he designed" for his ex, NICOLE SHERZINGER, on the island of Grenada. However, when he split with the former Pussycat Dolls singer in February, "he decided he no longer needed the tropical bolt-hole." This left developer BERNARDO BERTUCCI "with a specially-built home and no one to live in it, and he has launched legal action against Hamilton" in an effort to make some of his money back (DAILY MAIL, 7/31).
SET FREE: The mother-in-law of F1 CEO BERNIE ECCLESTONE, who was kidnapped in Brazil, "has been freed unharmed without any ransom being paid," police said. APARECIDA SCHUNCK, 67, the mother of Ecclestone's wife, FABIANA FLOSI, was abducted from her São Paulo home on July 22. A ransom of $36.5M was demanded, "but none was paid," according to ELISABETE SATO of the São Paulo police. Sato said that there was a "major police operation to free the victim." Two suspects were arrested. Schunck was freed after being traced to a house near São Paulo after investigators "monitored phone calls between the kidnappers and her family, police say" (BBC, 8/1).
