A Bad Week for ... , December 22, 2013

Andre Villas-Boas

The young Portuguese manager of Tottenham Hotspur was sacked after a run of poor results, including a 6-0 away defeat by Manchester City and a 5-0 humbling at home by Liverpool. Villas-Boas, previously fired by London neighbours Chelsea, had been criticised for not signing adequate replacements for Welsh winger Gareth Bale, sold to Real Madrid for £86 million (HK$1.1 billion).

MTR Corp

Travel chaos reigned on Monday when a power failure on the Tseung Kwan O line, caused by an overhead cable coming loose and dangling precariously from a ceiling, halted services for five hours. At one point, about 150 passengers were forced to walk along a section of track and cross-harbour services were disrupted for an hour.

Bitcoin

The price of the much-vaunted virtual currency went into freefall amid a global sell-off after Shanghai-based exchange BTC China blocked renminbi deposits. The move followed a central bank order banning transactions by third-party payment providers involving digital currencies.