The best piece of humour to come out of the recent meat fraud scandal was an image of four cows in a field in which one of them is saying "Bloody horses coming over here and taking our jobs." It perfectly encapsulated the inherent europhobic nature of Britain recently fuelled...

In any normal year Andy Murray would be assured the BBC Sports Personality of the Year. Brushing aside lame attempts at humour by those who insist the Scotsman is somewhat deficient in a key ingredient of the title - just look at what he...

In 1961 John F Kennedy was sworn in as the 35th president of the United States. The youngest, and the most enigmatic leader America had known. Yet in less than three years he would be dead. Assassinated in Dallas, Texas on November 22nd 1963. An event which continues to baffle...

Greece, founder of western democracy, the birthplace of the Olympics and philosophy, is dying. Ironically for a country that also lays claim to the being the birthplace of mathematics, it's the numbers that are hurting the most. The Greek economy is predicted to shrink by 4.7 percent this...

By the late Seventies the Ryder Cup had become a joke. The Americans so dominated the event that it was no longer of interest as a sporting contest. When Jack Nicklaus suggested that it be broadened to European team instead of a Great Britain and Ireland side, there was one...

What happened to the genteel sport of golf? "The Americans started losing," then European Captain Bernard Gallacher would comment. In the Nineteen Nineties the Ryder Cup competition grew teeth and bit down hard on a rivalry which had once been friendly. Twice on American soil the Europeans were seen not...

Something strange is happening in the world of sport. The all consuming monoculture of football appears to be losing it tyranical hold over the backpages. When Mexico triumphed over Brazil in the final of the Olympic football, the Brazilian media turned. They became the latest nation to question the moral...

On Monday morning, 6 August, at approximately five minutes past ten a 30-year-old Italian will take to the track to compete in her very first Olympic Games. To the ranks of media her name will just be one of many on a list. Indeed when I tried to sell her...

It didn't take long, did it, before those proclaiming themselves to be feminists focused their indignation on the Olympics. I've always been a little perplexed by constant misuse of the term feminist, as there seems to be little about sisterhood in many of the...

Nothing quite prepares you for the spectacle of the Olympic Games.

Forget the fireworks, the marketing, and the endless torch relay - when the Olympics gets to the business end there is not a show on earth to beat it. I've covered professional sport for 15 years, but nothing comes...

Chris Cleave, author of Gold: A Novel, recently remarked on the BBC that with sport being so rich with drama why more authors hadn't chosen to set their stories in the world of professional sports. Cleave was fortunate that his previous published novels which were not in the sports fiction...

Maria Sharapova is the poster girl of women's tennis. The favourite for this fortnight's Wimbledon crown. An American in all but passport. With her long blonde hair and even longer legs she is the darling of sponsors and media alike. She is adored by the WTA and her legion of...

Six years ago from a background of scandal, allegations of corruption, and an attempted suicide, the Azzurri rose up to conquer the world. This was not a new occurrence. In 1980 Totonero had broken, seven clubs, two managers, and twenty players were all punished for their involvement. One of whom...

Sports people are by their very nature obsessives. It's what gives them their edge. It's what drives them on where others would quit. It's the glue which binds their personality and profession together. We've all heard professional athletes talk of "being in the zone," and it's this seeking of perfection...