Football Diary

by Patrick O'Connor

THE job of being a football referee is becoming more difficult every day and recent controversy over who should and should not be sent off for two-footed tackles is not making things any easier.

Indeed, it's almost becoming a witch hunt by television as pundits pour over, frame by frame, every contentious tackle.

Sports Diary
by Patrick O’Connor

THE British media is already getting its knickers in a twist over Andy Murray.

They got wildly excited when the country’s only genuine tennis star reached the semi-finals of the French Open but then sank back into the usual frenzy of over-analysis when he succumbed to Rafael Nadal.

Football Diary
by Patrick O’Connor

THE BBC football website regularly includes a very funny satirical spoof TV programme called Special 1 TV featuring puppet caricatures of top football personalities.  It is ‘hosted’ by the Special One himself, the Real Madrid manager Jose Mourinho. Apparently it was Mourinho who came up with the nickname Special One  but the British media adopted it with relish during his trophy-winning spell with Chelsea.

A few years back my wife and I spent a short holiday in Barcelona, a fabulously vibrant city which I can heartily recommend (although beware of the pickpockets!).

Whilst there we took advantage of an open-top bus tour of the Spanish city which included a stop outside Barcelona’s impressive Nou Camp stadium.