Perfectly good goals disallowed. Travesties of justice waved on. Players and managers tearing their hair out. Supporters in uproar. Officialdom lambasted. The grand old game going to hell in a handcart. Ah, yes, who wouldn’t miss football’s good old pre-VAR days?

The highs and lows of Diego Maradona’s life in Naples provided fertile ground for a major new documentary, writes Ed Power

This has been a decent season for Lionel Andres Messi.

The Cannes Film Festival (May 14 to 25) unveiled its roster earlier in the week

You might say that Naples is a city of three volcanoes. Vesuvius looms behind the city and the bay, Campi Flegrei is the super volcano nine miles wide that lurks beneath - and then there is the football club, writes David Shonfield.

Argentine soccer legend Diego Maradona insists he has left his off-the-pitch issues behind as he was formally introduced as the new coach of Mexican second-tier club Dorados de Sinaloa.

Argentina 1 Iceland 1: The interval was almost upon us at Spartak Stadium and Jorge Sampaoli’s stress levels had long since moved beyond critical. That’s actually where they started.

Do you remember the first time?

It might be hard to imagine Graeme Souness, the Roy Keane of his era, taking to the pitch for even a routine assignment with anything other than his most ferocious battle face on but, as he revealed in his Sunday newspaper column at the weekend, he and his Liverpool team mates were “larking around like 12-year-olds” in the tunnel before they walked out to play Roma in the latter’s own backyard in the 1984 European Cup final.

Diego Maradona was pretty good at scoring with his hand, so when he heard of Irish footballers doing the same, he had to find out more.

My attention was caught t’other day by a piece in the paper headlined ‘World Cup: Ten Talking Points From The Midweek Friendlies’.

In an interview first published on February 21, 2015, Liam Miller reflected on his career with Liam Mackey.

It’s the time of year when a no-longer-young man’s heart turns to writing a column about trying to take up running again, writes Colm O’Regan.

Can LeBron James lift a fourth NBA title and be compared to Michael Jordan as the sport’s GOAT, or will he lose in the finals for the sixth time? asks Kieran Shannon

There was a sense of Christmases past, present, and future coming into focus as Manchester City played Leicester City in the League Cup this week, says Liam Mackey.

More people are becoming homeless because of family breakdowns, than those being forced out by landlords.

The saying down Munster way used to claim that Superman wore Paul O’Connell pyjamas.

Harry Kane felt inspired by meeting Diego Maradona on Sunday and wants to replicate the former Argentina striker by becoming the best player in the world.

Harry Kane felt inspired by meeting Diego Maradona yesterday and wants to replicate the former Argentina striker by becoming the best player in the world.

Jurgen Klopp said he would have made a better fist of defending Tottenham's first goal in Sunday's 4-1 Premier League defeat at Wembley than his Liverpool side managed.

It is the dream of every sports broadcaster to have their voices usher in one immortal moment. Jimmy Magee had a lifetime’s worth, writes Tommy Martin.

Diego Maradona's retelling of Argentina's 1986 World Cup victory is a quixotic joy, writes Noel Baker

Inevitably, the word ‘addiction’ features early in George Best: All By Himself, the documentary aired on the BBC this week.

They then quickly moved on to what is “generally known as the greatest goal of all time”, the groom’s goal against Sligo Rover in 2007 - complete with a play by play.

No knee slides, no leaping and punching the air, no elaborately choreographed hand-shake routines. Just a little fist bump here, a fleeting palm slap there or maybe a passing pat on the back. 

Police were called to investigate an altercation involving Diego Maradona and a woman at a hotel in Madrid, authorities said.

The modern Champions League format has little space for romance or novelty — as seen by this week’s fixture list as Arsenal and Bayern Munich, and Barcelona and Paris Saint-Germain, met again for the upteenth time in recent years.

I was initially tempted to make last week’s disconsolate column feel like the Dalai Lama’s positive thinking app in comparison with this one.

Larry Ryan on what we’ll miss most from Gilesy…   

If Cristiano Ronaldo leads Portugal to victory in the final of Euro 2016, will his career have been more successful than rival Lionel Messi, asks Robert McNamara

Portuguese defender Pepe doesn’t exactly make himself easy to like — one brutal temper tantrum, the kind that would make even Joey Barton blush, earned him a 10-match ban at Real Madrid after he raked his studs down the back of an opponent in 2009.

Barcelona and Lionel Messi are again the centre of admiration in the football world and rightly so.

As the saying goes: ’Pele good, Maradona better, George Best’.

Argentina 45 Tonga 16: Argentina captain Agustin Creevy revealed Diego Maradona’s dressing room dance has driven them to push for Rugby World Cup glory.

For the Dunph’s “a good player, not a great player”, now read Fergie’s “a great player but not world class”.

Like Jim Hawkins at the end of Treasure Island, I sometimes dream of my youthful voyage far from home. I dream of trains and pizzas and penalties and the Egypt match. And I start upright in my bed with that familiar, unlovely chat ringing in my ears. Olé Olé Ofeckinlay.

Spain 4 Italy 0: The scoreline that scarred a nation, and above all, one set of players.