It’s a gloomy, rainy Monday. Are you in any kind of mood for work? Hell no! So here’s a round-up of some of the headlines that caught our eye over the past day or so. Enjoy.

Homare Sawa has been awarded FIFA’s coveted Ballon d’Or Women’s World Player of the Year for 2011. We take a look at the final nominees and longlisted players.

The drama has continued in the FIFA World Cup 2011, with England, Australia, Germany and Brazil eliminated. The Semi-Finals take place on Wednesday: France v USA and Japan v Sweden. Here’s the latest lowdown

Sunday sees the 2011 FIFA Women’s World Cup kick off in Germany. This is a chance to see some of the best players in the world do what they do best. Ireland may not be involved but there is still plenty to keep us interested.
So let’s take a look at the teams.

Star players, and sisters, Salimata and Bilguisa Simpore have been dropped from the Equatorial Guinean team for the up coming World Cup because of yet another gender controversy in world sport.

Today sees the closing ceremony of the 8th Gay Games in Cologne, which kicked off on 31st July – and a well-deserved rest for the 100-odd members of Team Ireland. And bloody hell, didn’t Team Ireland do well?

If you’re not attending today’s Dublin Pride celebrations, why not tune in to the final of the UEFA Championship, where Ireland’s under-17 women’s squad takes on Spain? Kick-Off: 12:30pm Irish time.

I realise that for some people the World Cup is a nightmare. Football and more football every day and night for weeks, to me that sounds like heaven. I’m not crazy, I just love the beautiful game. Let me try to explain

Aussie Rules team the Western Bulldogs have imposed a two-match ban one on of their stars, Jason Akermanis, for saying in a newspaper column that he believes that having an openly gay player would be too controversial. Is he wrong?

A week before ‘International Day Against Homophobia in Football’ sees the FA having to rethink their anti homophobia video due to the league’s star players snubbing the venture.
It’s more than disheartening to see the FA’s efforts at ending homophobia stilted by the players themselves.

Ireland are in Paris tonight hoping to overturn a one goal deficit to book their place in next summer’s FIFA World Cup 2010 being hosted by South Africa. It’s a cliched “must-win” game for the Irish who have at least 90 minutes to make an impression on the sophisticated French side. All TVs will be tuned to RTE 2 tonight!

So many people are coming out these days but for some reason this seems less accurate in the case of sports stars. Could the crowds be at fault?

And we’re off again, on a journey that fans so look forward to… the champions league. Will the likes of Celtic, Liverpool Man U, Chelsea and Arsenal be able to make it all the way to the final?

Should we allow money to take over the game even more? I can’t blame City fans for being delighted with the new signings etc but is this another nail in the coffin of the sport we love?

So with the Euro championship over the transfer gossip hots up even more. Where will the likes of Arshavin, Helb and Ronaldo start next season? If I’ve to read one more story about Barry or Adebayor I’ll loose my mind! It seems like stories about certain players go on and on and on. Transfers like [...]

[All links open in a new window] This evening’s Germany v Turkey semi-final of UEFA’s Euro 2008 marked the anti-racism theme of the tournament with speeches from the team captains on the subject. Brandished about during the competition have been flags, banners and badges with the word “RESPECT” proudly displayed. Yet, the organisers of Euro [...]

Transfer speculation! Is there anything worse? Fans are all terrified that their key players will move on to pastures new and wait in anticipation for their club to make a signing that will give them hope throughout the coming summer that next season will be better. Few signings will match that of Fernando Torres but [...]