Europe’s police authority Europol have been promising to shock the football world for some time with their match-fixing investigations.

Tired of drab Premier League polemics?

The Bundesliga came back with a bang at the weekend after its month-long hibernation.

Benfica and Porto are once again locked in mortal combat at the top of the league in Portugal.

We won’t make a drama out of a crisis, Commercial Union used to promise customers back in the days before it evolved into Aviva.

The turn of the year is a time to look forward, but for some people it’s also a time of regret.

Details can make the difference, as managers always say.

In football’s catechism of cliché it is customary to claim that some one-season wonder is “frighteningly good”.

Bragging rights are important enough for fans, so imagine what they must be like for owners.

In Barcelona they joke that if Catalonia wins independence at least Real Madrid will be able to win La Liga. Come next Saturday night even that might be beyond Jose Mourinho and his men.