Former Irish football player and manager Patrick O’Connell was last night officially honoured by Barcelona before the La Liga giants’ home clash with Real Betis.

With the top teams all struggling and having come out of a transfer window fighting for players surplus to requirements in La Liga and Bundesliga, we ask if we could be about to witness the worst Premier League season of all-time.

In Irish football’s roll call of arch-villains, he might be more Toto Schillaci than Thierry Henry, but as the man whose penalty finally did for Mick McCarthy’s team in that epic match in Suwon at the 2002 World Cup, Gaizka Mendieta always carries an extra little bit of baggage with him whenever he touches down at Dublin Airport. 

Global warming may have contributed to low rain levels in Somalia in 2011 where tens of thousands died in a famine, research by British climate scientists suggests.

After 139 days of round-the-clock sit-ins, the former employees of Vita Cortex have finally secured a severance deal with their former employer which will allow them to go home within a fortnight.

Dream Ahead is "highly doubtful" to remain in training next season, according to trainer David Simcock.

BARCELONA head into tonight’s Champions League clash against Shakhtar Donetsk in buoyant mood, although striker David Villa admits to concern over his recent lack of goals at club level.

Los Angeles caught a bad case of Bieber fever when hundreds of Justin Bieber fans – along with his famous friends Miley Cyrus, Will Smith, Usher and Selena Gomez – filled the LA Live complex for the premiere of the teenage pop star’s first film, 'Justin Bieber: Never Say Never'.

THOUSANDS of people fled central Brisbane yesterday as the panicked city braced for its worst flooding in 120 years, after terrifying flash floods left 10 dead and 78 missing.

THEY say that the Champions League only comes alive when we reach the knock-out phase and that’s surely been truer this campaign than in any season in the past — think back to the dullness and relative lack of importance for the last round of group games.

Alexander Hleb has hinted that former Arsenal team-mate Cesc Fabregas could join him at Barcelona.

KING Of Rome has been all the rage for the Vodafone Derby following news that he will be Johnny Murtagh’s mount at Epsom on Saturday.

Godolphin could be doubly-represented in the Irish 2000 Guineas at the Curragh on Saturday week.

Godolphin’s Rio De La Plata, who was only beaten by New Approach in the best juvenile event of the season in the National Stakes, could possibly be seen again this season after confirming his star quality by running away with the Prix Jean-Luc Lagardere at Longchamp.

SEVILLA got their Champions League Group H campaign up and running with a convincing win over Slavia Prague last night.

Oscar winner Denzel Washington is set to pick up the Stanley Kubrick Britannia Award for Excellence in Film at the Bafta/LA Cunard Britannia Awards later this year.

The Examiner’s football correspondent Liam Mackey is still in search of the source of the White Nile so Allan Prosser gets a recall to mediate over your views and opinions again this week.

Leicester manager Micky Adams revealed he quit the Walkers Stadium because he believed his anxiety was affecting the fortunes of the team.

KEVIN WALSH will captain the Galway senior footballers this season.