Make sense of it all? Maybe there was no sense to be found in it at all.

Football – zut alors!

In Paris tonight, during a television programme hosted by David Ginola, the famous Ballon d’Or trophy will be presented for the 62nd time.

In the 15 excruciatingly long years between 1991 and 2006, Manchester City registered not a single victory over Arsenal. To say the Gunners had become a bogey team was to underestimate the state of affairs quite radically.

Bayern Munich against Arsenal has become a Champions League hardy perennial. Tomorrow night’s match takes on added significance following Philipp Lahm’s announcement that he will retire at the end of the season.

Titles aren’t won during the congested holiday programme but the period sets the tone for the second half of the season while the arrival of the January transfer window can prove a tipping point in determining the futures of individual managers and players. Here are five questions that could be answered during the next few days.

Seen from above, the man in the golden shirt is caught in mid-flight, high in the air, as if vaulting some invisible obstacle, writes David Shonfield

Ireland’s football trendsetter across so many eras, writes Liam Mackey

Sepp Blatter has claimed a £1.35m (€2m) payment to Michel Platini which has seen the pair provisionally suspended by Fifa’s ethics committee was part of a “gentleman’s agreement” between the two of them.

Bayern Munich’s honorary president Franz Beckenbauer has warned Pep Guardiola not to keep the club waiting over signing a new contract.

Hello, remember me? I’m the chap who used to write about Liverpool for the Examiner before some satellite TV flunky decided we’d make great Monday Night Heroes.

Brarcelona 3 Juventus 1: After Barcelona had yet again proven themselves the best, Gerard Pique put it best.

There is enough intrigue as well as quality in the Champions League semi-finals this week to have any football fan salivating, writes David Shonfield.

Bayern Munich 6 Porto 1 (Bayern win 7-4 on aggregate): Pep Guardiola’s reputation as the world’s greatest football coach, under threat this week amid rumours could be jettisoned by Bayern Munich in the summer, has been spectacularly and emphatically revived by a breathtaking 6-1 victory over Porto in the Champions League that sends his side into the semi-finals and keeps the Treble dream alive.

Hubris. Now there’s a word I really like, with its hint of a serpent’s hiss at the end offset by the near certainty that the slithery one is in for a nasty surprise.

Three current FIFA executive committee members are under investigation by ethics chief Michael Garcia following his probe into World Cup bidding, it can be revealed.

Legends from soccer, GAA and rugby have come out in support of a campaign to raise funds for a memorial for a footballer who was the first Irish man to play for Manchester United.

The crisis in Italian football is a bit like climate change.

Tomorrow is Pele’s birthday — or maybe it was yesterday. Depends on where you fact check.

An impressive snapshot. It’s the mid-1970s. Flanked by two of Germany’s greatest ever players, Franz Beckenbauer and Gerd Muller, Noel Campbell strides towards the dressing rooms.

If at first you don’t succeed, try, try and try again. This seems to be key in any great sporting triumph.

For all the talk of this possibly being the coronation of Lionel Messi and for all his moments of brilliance that have elevated this tournament above the average, facing him tomorrow is a story just as remarkable.

Franz Beckenbauer insisted yesterday he was ready to answer questions from Fifa about an investigation into World Cup bidding by June 27 and believed that should remove any justification for its 90-day ban on him.

Franz Beckenbauer has promised to co-operate with FIFA’s ethics investigations into World Cup bidding and has asked for the provisional ban against him to be lifted.

Qatar 2022 chiefs have claimed their right to a fair hearing by FIFA’s ethics investigator is being undermined.

Franz Beckenbauer has called off his planned trip to Brazil after being provisionally banned by FIFA while an investigation takes place into his refusal to co-operate with a probe into World Cup bidding.

Franz Beckenbauer has become the highest-profile casualty of Fifa’s probe into World Cup bidding after the German was provisionally banned for 90 days while he is investigated for refusing to cooperate.

Sony has become the first World Cup sponsor to call for a probe into accusations that bribes were paid to secure the 2022 tournament for Qatar, raising the stakes for football chiefs, who have threatened to move the cup if the allegations are proved to be true.

The stories about Louis van Gaal are many, and some of them are even true.

Possession, so the saying goes, is nine-tenths of the law, but, like many sayings, it’s wrong — at least in Champions League semi-finals.

Should Manchester United look abroad to replace David Moyes, who are the best potential candidates?

Cristiano Ronaldo is a sensitive soul. As Sepp Blatter discovered last October, it is unwise to make fun about how much an actor spends on his appearance.

Bayern Munich would have loved to prise Arsene Wenger away from Arsenal, club president Uli Hoeness has admitted.

Alex Ferguson has admitted Pep Guardiola’s decision to join Bayern Munich has caught him by surprise.

Lionel Messi won an unprecedented fourth consecutive FIFA Ballon d’Or last night after his record-breaking 91 goals in 2012 – but still branded the year not one of his best.

Lionel Messi strengthened his claim to be considered the greatest footballer of all time by winning a record-breaking fourth consecutive Fifa Ballon d’Or last night.