World Cup 2014 - And The Winner Is...

By Shane Thomas

When asked to compare the World Cup and the Champions League, commentator Jon Champion opined that the Champions League may be football's gold standard, but the World Cup remains the pinnacle.

So with that in mind, here's a brief rundown (accompanied with ill-advised prognostications) of the teams likely to ascend to the aforementioned pinnacle. So before you ask, no, there will be no look at England in this post.

La Decima - Real Madrid's Favourite Toy

By Shane Thomas

This was a story of wanting. It was made up of persistence, ego, and greed. But ultimately, it was about a want. A desperate, edacious, grasping want.

The Diary of a Pessimistic Arsenal Fan - The Trophy

By Shane Thomas

Arsene Wenger said it began to feel like a curse. Sporting curses are normally a preserve of North America, but given Benfica's failure in the Europa League final, stretching the Bela Guttman curse into its 52nd year, and Liverpool - in part due to Steven Gerrard becoming acquainted with the Anfield turf - falling agonisingly short of ending their 24 year wait for a league championship, it seemed as if football is now getting into the curse business.

The Politics of Sport - The Unwanted (but much needed) Interloper

By Shane Thomas

CONTENT NOTE: This piece will include examples of racism, rape culture, domestic violence and transphobia.

With the recent incidents concerning the footballer, Dani Alves - and the subsequent #weareallmonkeys hashtag, as well as LA Clippers owner, Donald Sterling being banned from the NBA, it may give a false impression that the arenas of sport and politics mix in relative comfort. However, the collision of the two is often a problematic one.

United in Grief

By Shane Thomas

As the postmortems and retrospectives of David Moyes' compendiary spell as Manchester United are written, I had to join the punditocracy by penning my own thoughts.

The Politics of Sport - Be Our Guest

By Shane Thomas

It's seldom that I don't enjoy the Olympics and Paralympics (summer or winter). However, this year's Winter Games in Sochi came with an awful lot of baggage. While I thrilled at the exploits - not only of the British medal winners, but also the men's and women's Canadian hockey teams, and the historic achievements of Ole Einar Bjoerndalen, Roman Petushkov and Carina Vogt - this joy was offset by a maelstrom of problems.

Beware The Little Horse

By Shane Thomas

Not long ago, I threw some self-indulgent shade at Chelsea re-hiring Jose Mourinho last summer. However, after their accomplished 1-0 win over Manchester City on Monday, the media narrative appears to be showing the Portugese much favour.