There will be more than a dozen company proposals up for a vote on Thursday during Tesla’s annual meeting, but none have generated more division than Musk’s potentially massive pay package.

“While we appreciate the significant value created under Mr. Musk’s visionary role, we are concerned about the total size of the award, dilution, and lack of mitigation of key person risk consistent with our views on executive compensation,” said Norges Bank Investment Management, which manages the country’s Government Pension Fund Global. “We will continue to seek constructive dialogue with Tesla on this and other topics.”

The fund has a 1.16% stake, the sixth largest holding among institutional investors.

Baron Capital Management, which holds about 0.4% of Tesla’s outstanding shares said Monday that it will vote in favor of the compensation package.

“Elon is the ultimate “key man” of key man risk. Without his relentless drive and uncompromising standards, there would be no Tesla,” wrote founder Ron Baron. “He has built one of the most important companies in the world. He’s redefining transportation, energy and humanoid robotics and creating lasting value for shareholders while doing it. His interests are completely aligned with investors.”

Musk is the company’s largest investor, holding 15.79% of all outstanding shares.

Tesla management has proposed a compensation arrangement that would hand Musk shares worth as much as 12% of the company in a dozen separate packages if the company meets ambitious performance targets, including massive increases in car production, share price and operating profit.

-AP

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The scoring phenom from Norway made it 18 goals from his opening 11 games of the season by netting City’s winner against Brentford in the Premier League.

That prompted a question: Is he in the form of his life?

“You can say so,” Haaland said. “I’ve never felt better than I do now.”

Here’s a deeper look at his scoring run — and how it currently compares to other top strikers:

Is this Haaland’s best goal streak?

In a senior career spent at Molde in Norway, Salzburg in Austria, Borussia Dortmund in Germany and now City, Haaland has never scored more than 18 goals in an 11-game stretch in a single season.

He has achieved that exact same tally, though, on three previous occasions. And they came in the same season.

In the 2022-23 campaign — his first at City — Haaland had 11-game stretches from Aug. 21-Oct. 5 and Aug. 27-Oct. 8 where he scored 18 goals for club and country. Those runs included hat tricks in three consecutive home league games.

Later that season, he again netted 18 goals in an 11-game run from March 11-May 3 — a streak that included five goals in a Champions League match against Leipzig.

In his current run, Haaland also has a five-goal match — for Norway against Moldova — as well as four doubles. He has nine Premier League goals so far, which is more than nine teams in the division.

What about Haaland’s run of consecutive scoring games?

This is where Haaland has broken his personal record.

His goal against Brentford meant he has now scored in nine straight matches for club and country, and he’s never done that before.

His previous best streak was eight games in a row — from August to October in 2021 when he played for Dortmund, and from August to September in 2022 soon after joining City.

What’s the Premier League record for scoring in consecutive games?

The only game in which Haaland failed to score this season was at home to Tottenham in the Premier League on Aug. 23, when City lost 2-0.

He has netted in all five of City’s league games since, but has a way to go to break the record for scoring in consecutive games.

That is held by Jamie Vardy, who scored in 11 straight matches in the Premier League from August to November en route to Leicester winning the title in fairytale fashion.

How does Haaland compare to the world’s other top strikers this season?
It hasn’t just been a strong start to the season for Haaland.

Harry Kane has begun even better, scoring 19 goals in his first 11 games for Bayern Munich and England combined — starting with one in the German Super Cup. The England captain has failed to score in just one of those matches.

As for Kylian Mbappé, he has 16 goals in his opening 12 games for Real Madrid and France combined. He has also failed to score in only one of those matches.

-AP

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Two Olympic gold medalist ski jumpers and three staffers on the powerful Norway men’s team were charged with ethics violations Monday after an investigation into alleged tampering with ski suits at the world championships.

The International Ski and Snowboard Federation said star ski jumpers Marius Lindvik and Johann André Forfang, two coaches and a member of the service staff were formally charged as part of an investigation into “equipment manipulation” at the Nordic worlds Norway hosted in March.

Illegally modified suits can help athletes fly further with more aerodynamic resistance.

The allegations — backed by video footage and quick confessions by team officials — shook the tight-knit communities of ski jumping and Norwegian sports when they emerged on the final weekend in Trondheim.

No timetable was given for hearings or verdicts in a case that intensifies less than six months before the next Winter Olympics open in northern Italy.

Bans, fines and disqualification of results are on the slate of punishments open to the FIS Ethics Committee, the governing body said in a statement.

Lindvik’s gold medal in the men’s normal hill event at the worlds held in Trondheim, plus Norway’s bronze in the men’s team event on the large hill are clearly at risk.

FIS said the investigation conducted 38 witness interviews and examined 88 pieces of evidence, and that no one else will be charged in the case.

Lindvik and Forfang, who both were in the team that took bronze, denied involvement in March though were disqualified from the individual large hill event and suspended by FIS for the rest of the season. Their charges were signed off by the FIS ruling council, the governing body said.

The 27-year-old Lindvik has been expected to defend his Olympic title next year in the men’s large hill event at the Milan-Cortina d’Ampezzo Winter Games. Forfang, now 30, took team gold on the large hill and individual silver on the normal hill at the 2018 Olympics held in South Korea.

Admissions of guilt were made in March by head coach Magnus Brevik and equipment manager Adrian Livelten, who said suits were altered only before the men’s large hill event.

“We regret it like dogs, and I’m terribly sorry that this happened,” Brevik said at the time. A third team staffer, Thomas Lobben, also is now charged.

The manipulation was to increase the size of suits pre-approved and microchipped by FIS, and was captured on secretly filmed footage. It led to formal protests from the Austria, Slovenia and Poland teams.

The alterations could be confirmed only by tearing apart the seams of the crotch area on the Norwegian ski suits.

The case will be judged by three members of the ethics panel which must reach verdicts “no later than 30 days after the hearing process is concluded,” FIS said.

FIS has already tightened up its rules on ski jump suits, something which caused a spate of disqualifications when athletes gathered for the first competition of the new season Saturday. FIS said that was down to technical issues and it didn’t suspect “ill intent.”

AP

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Three more Norwegian ski jumpers were suspended on Thursday in a widening cheating scandal that has shocked the sport.

World championships medalists Robin Pederson and Kristoffer Eriksen Sundal were provisionally suspended along with Robert Johansson over suspicion of illegal manipulation of jump suits, the International Ski and Snowboard Federation said.

They follow the suspensions on Wednesday of Olympic gold medalists Marius Lindvik and Johann André Forfang in a scandal that came to light after Norway team officials manipulated suits to improve aerodynamics and help athletes fly farther.

FIS said it was asked to seize all jump suits used by Norway at the world championships in Trondheim last week and found no irregularities in those used by women’s or combined men’s and women’s teams.

But it said findings that “raised additional suspicions of manipulation” led to the suspensions of Pederson, Sundal and Johansson, who will not be able to take part in any events organized by FIS or national ski associations.

“The rules are quite clear. The rules are made by all the ski family,” FIS secretary general Michel Vion told a news conference in Oslo where a World Cup event started on Thursday. “We know exactly the situation and I heard (it said) that, ‘Yeah, but ski jumping is special. They (are always) on the limit, we can play …’

“No, there’s no play. There’s no game here. It’s only rules.”

It is not known how widespread the practice of manipulating pre-approved suits is within ski jumping.

Lindvik and Forfang said they knew nothing about deliberately altered equipment, but their coach Magnus Brevig and equipment manager Adrian Livelten confessed and were stood down from their jobs.

The investigation will be made by the FIS independent ethics and compliance office.

“We are all aware that this is not the best moment for ski jumping, but I think this is the way that we want to go,” FIS race director of ski jumping Sandro Pertile said. “In this case we have, we are into an intentional manipulation.

“We cannot communicate all the details but I think that we are on a good way to clarify the topic.”

FIS said all suits would be checked at the event in Oslo.

AP

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Norway’s soccer federation plans to abstain from giving its approval when Saudi Arabia is confirmed Wednesday as the 2034 World Cup host, saying FIFA has done too little to protect human rights around the tournament.

“FIFA’s own guidelines for human rights and due diligence have also not been adequately integrated into the process, increasing the risk of human rights violations,” Norway federation president Lise Klaveness said in a statement Tuesday.

FIFA’s 211 member federations are holding an online meeting on Wednesday to rubberstamp the decision to give Saudi Arabia the 2034 World Cup and award the 2030 edition to a six-nation project led by Spain, Portugal and Morocco that will see games played on three continents.

“(Wednesday’s) vote is not about who gets the 2030 and 2034 World Cups — that has already been decided,” Klaveness said, adding that FIFA’s approval without an itemized vote “does not align with the principles of a sound and predictable governance system.”

FIFA shaped the contests last year to have just one bid each that faced limited outside scrutiny, as the soccer body and its president Gianni Infantino continued to build deeper financial and political ties to Saudi Arabia.

Saudi Arabia has a massive construction plan for stadiums, hotels and transport for the World Cup set to rely heavily on migrant labor – raising concerns that FIFA is inviting a repeat of intense challenges and fatalities faced by workers in Qatar during preparations to host the 2022 edition. Norway and Klaveness also put pressure on FIFA and Qatar before that tournament.

FIFA’s in-house evaluation of the Saudi bid rated the tournament an elevated risk though with “significant opportunities for positive human rights impact,” which activists claimed was a whitewash.

A FIFA-mandated Saudi report on human rights was commissioned from a legal firm closely tied to the kingdom, and it committed World Cup organizers only to work with state-approved domestic agencies plus the UN-backed International Labor Organization.

The ILO in Geneva, which worked with Qatar to reform the “kafala” system of labor rules, is currently investigating a formal complaint alleging abuses in Saudi Arabia filed by the global trade union Building and Wood Workers’ International.

Switzerland’s soccer federation said Tuesday it will support FIFA’s 2030-2034 decisions, but noted “some vagueness on certain points” of the Saudi strategy to protect rights and freedoms.

“We consider it the duty of FIFA and the organizers, in cooperation with renowned independent international organizations” beyond the ILO, Swiss federation president Dominique Blanc said, “to look closely, observe and monitor whether commitments and promises made to workers, teams, fans and media professionals are upheld.”

Ultimately, the Swiss soccer body said, it believed FIFA and World Cup organizers in Saudi Arabia “have learned the lessons from Qatar.”

However, FIFA has ignored advice to compensate workers in Qatar and their families, given by a panel of rights experts appointed last year under pressure from European soccer officials including Norway.

FIFA withheld the panel’s report for almost a year until publishing it Nov. 30, two days after announcing a 2022 World Cup legacy fund of $50 million that that does not give anything directly to the workers. The money is going to charity projects linked to UN agencies.

“The lack of predictability and open processes challenges trust in FIFA as the global custodian of football,” Klaveness said.

AP

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