DIEGO MARADONA rose from the slums of Buenos Aires to find fame on the football pitch — reaching meteoric heights with his “Hand of God” goal against England in the summer of 1986.

LIVERPOOL striker Fernando Morientes appears to have distanced himself from a possible move to Espanyol by insisting he is settled in England and prefers the Premiership to La Liga.

WHEN Kerry and Tyrone last met in a championship game, the world was a different place.

Galway 2-15 Waterford 1-13

THOSE of us who rarely, if ever, have the chance of watching the world’s top players in action delighted in last night’s action at the Trilogy Tennis Challenge at the RDS.

Middlesborough 3 Tottenham 3

PUT any spin you like on this but unless Munster immediately perk up their level of performance by a good 20%, the dream of winning the Heineken European Cup after six years of constant disappointment will end up on the rubbish heap.

TEENAGER Jermaine Jenas fired Newcastle to an 11th successive Premiership win at St James’ Park to close the gap on second-placed Manchester United to just two points.

Crescent Comprehensive 10 Glenstal Abbey 9

WHEN you’re in a hole, the old saying goes, you should stop digging. Michael McDowell cited it recently, as he elegantly side-stepped public odium by allowing Nigerian student Kunle Elukanlo back into the country.

GAA President Sean Kelly last night admitted that “the sanctity of the referee and respect for his decisions is something the Association could borrow from sports such as rugby.”

Kilkenny 2-22 Clare 1-13

POLICE arrested a Tottenham fan who fiercely abused Arsenal’s former Spurs skipper Sol Campbell as the players left the field at White Hart Lane, writes Bill Pierce.

THIS was by far Munster’s worst performance in the Heineken Cup for five years. They lost 60-19 to Toulouse in 1997 but that was then. This is now and Munster, after four glorious seasons, are supposed to be the toughest nut of all to crack. We saw little evidence of that at Kingsholm on Saturday.

RAFAEL BENITEZ was left cursing the officials after Liverpool lost in unfortunate circumstances to Sao Paulo in the Club World Championship final in Yokohama.

Kilkenny 3-20 Clare 0-15

Birr1-19

THE Competition Authority has still not prosecuted a single cartel despite estimates that price-fixing is costing consumers more than 600m euro each year.