Let’s face it, decades ain’t what they used to be. There was a time was when you knew where you stood with a decade. The sixties? Flower power and beards. The seventies? Sideburns and disco. The eighties? Everything was massive: shoulder pads, mobile phones, hair. You used to be able to tell a decade simply by looking at the trousers involved.

It’s been described in turn as the ‘Hollywood of horses’ and ‘horse heaven’, and it’s guilty as charged according to the Irish stable of workers at Qatar’s leading equestrian centre.

Sport, according to a popular saying, is a form of war by other means.

Sport Ireland has called for a complete ban on any Russian involvement in international sporting competition following further revelations about the state’s doping offences.

Russia has been handed a four-year ban from major international sporting events after being found guilty of manipulating laboratory doping data.

The biggest story in sport this week was not really a story about sport. At least, not on the surface.

Qatar’s economy looks far from top form as it wraps up a flurry of building projects for the 2022 World Cup.

Former UEFA president Michel Platini has been released after being questioned by police over the awarding of the 2022 FIFA World Cup to Qatar.

Fifa is conducting racism risk assessments for all 2022 World Cup qualifiers and sending observers to matches where there is a high prospect of discriminatory incidents.

Former UEFA president Michel Platini has been detained for questioning by French police over the awarding of the 2022 World Cup to Qatar.

After years of turmoil for Fifa, Gianni Infantino is this week getting a fresh four-year presidential term to lead world football in relative calm.

Uefa are making their top finance man available to the FAI as the organisation seeks to move on from the current crisis.

The 2022 World Cup in Qatar will be a 32-team tournament as originally planned, FIFA has announced.

Mick McCarthy has never had much truck with spin.

At the height of the debate about opening up Croke Park to ‘foreign’ games, a hurling aficionado of my acquaintance offered up a soundbite for the ages.

The United States, Canada and Mexico will jointly host the 2026 World Cup after beating bid rival Morocco, FIFA has announced.

A scintillating goal from Neymar drew him level with Romario in Brazil’s all-time top scorers list as they cruised to a 3-0 win against Austria yesterday.

This will be Giggs’ first permanent job in management.

World Rugby chief executive Brett Gosper has hinted that Ireland’s timing hasn’t been right as the country finds itself ranked behind “two masters of the universe in terms of putting on major world events” in the race to host the 2023 Rugby World Cup.

The Qatari authorities are still not doing enough to protect migrant workers from the country's extreme heat and humidity, even those working on World Cup stadiums, according to Human Rights Watch (HRW).

RTÉ Sport confirmed yesterday it has secured exclusive free-to-air broadcast rights to the Republic of Ireland’s qualifying matches for the Euro 2020 finals and the 2022 World Cup.

The England 2018 World Cup bid team made a determined effort to win over former Fifa vice-president Jack Warner and “often accommodated his wishes, in apparent violation of bidding rules”, the Garcia report has found.

The England 2018 World Cup bid team made a determined effort to win over former FIFA vice-president Jack Warner and "often accommodated his wishes, in apparent violation of bidding rules", the Garcia report has found.

FIFA has taken the dramatic step of publishing a controversial internal report into the 2018 and 2022 World Cup bidding process after it was leaked to a German newspaper this week.

Qatar's successful bid for the 2022 World Cup looks set to become mired in fresh controversy after the leaking of a secret FIFA report into the 2010 bidding contests.

A British man has died while working on a stadium for the 2022 World Cup, organisers said.

Good afternoon. Here’s all the news you need to know this lunchtime.

Here’s a briefing on some of the stories and issues highlighted on irishexaminer.com today

It may may go unnoticed as a footballing landmark, but this week marks the halfway point between the controversial awarding of the World Cup to Qatar in December 2010, and the tournament kicking off in the tiny but wealthy Arab state in November 2022.

AS the Euro 2016 party gets into full swing it is easy to forget how corrupt the administration of international football has become and how many entirely inappropriate decisions, especially around selecting venues, have been made.

Fifa’s ethics court is expected to ban Sepp Blatter and Michel Platini, the scandal-scarred football body’s most powerful leaders, today.

English Football Association chairman Greg Dyke believes significant doubt remains over whether Qatar will actually host the 2022 World Cup, five years on from what he calls “the worst moment in Fifa’s history”.

At an extraordinary session in Zurich last Tuesday, the Fifa Executive Committee appointed Spanish FA president Angel Maria Villar Llona as acting chairman of the Organising Committee for the Fifa World Cup 2018.

Developments across the water caught my eye last week, specifically some news filtering out of Newcastle and Glasgow.

Tottenham striker Harry Kane hopes to build on his impressive campaign last term in the forthcoming Premier League season.

A businessman who was indicted by US authorities in connection to the Fifa corruption case has turned himself in to Italian police.

Jack Warner’s legal battle against extradition to the United States on corruption charges could ’possibly last years’ and even end up being heard by the Privy Council, the Attorney General of Trinidad has said.

The head of Fifa’s audit and compliance committee has reportedly claimed Russia and Qatar could lose the right to host the World Cup if evidence emerges of bribery in the bidding processes.

While various organisations such as the US Department of Justice and the Swiss government launch investigations into financial irregularities in FIFA, the true cost of football corruption should be measured not in dollars but in dead bodies.