Soccer
Euro 2016 tickets go on sale on the Uefa website at 11am and Emmet Malone has all the details as to how they will be allocated.
Those who regularly attend games will be given priority among the 800,000 tickets going on sale, with applications open until January 18th.
The reaction of Ireland's Group E opponents has been quite interesting with Italy and Belgium confident they can progress through what is being dubbed the 'group of death'. "It's a tough draw: nothing more. The Republic of Ireland we should be able to beat," said Belgium manager Marc Wilmots.
Swedish manager Erik Hamren was somewhat more complimentary, saying that the opening fixture between Ireland and Sweden at the Stade de France on June 13th could be the key game, describing both teams as “the underdogs” in the group.
Patrick Madden has all of the details about the process of securing yourself tickets.
And in his column this week Ken Early says that it is a chance for Ireland to right the wrongs of Euro 2012.
“Euro 2012 was not Irish football’s finest hour, but it did leave us with one golden legacy. Once you’ve suffered the experience of being the worst-performing team in the history of the tournament, nothing seems quite so daunting ever again.
Belgium, Italy and Sweden is not the easiest group Ireland could have had but it’s still preferable to Spain, Italy and Croatia. Being trampled by those teams helped us get some perspective on the world. While the last team went to Poland dreading the worst, we can hope their successors will just be aiming to make the best of their opportunity.”
Meanwhile, Michael O'Neill admits that the draw could have been better for his Northern Ireland side after they were placed with Germany, Poland and Ukraine in Group C.
In the Premier League it was a heated affair at Anfield after Divock Origi's late equaliser sparked ugly scenes on the sideline. After an earlier altercation, Jurgen Klopp refused to shake Tony Pulis' hand after the game, saying that the game had "not been friendly".
Arsenal completed a great week with a 2-0 win over Aston Villa, compounding Remi Garde's woes while Newcastle came from behind to clinch a late win away to Spurs.
The draw for the Champions League last 16 takes place at 11am today with full coverage on the Irish Times website.
UFC
The early hours of yesterday morning saw Conor McGregor crowned as Ireland's first ever UFC world champion when he knocked out Jose Aldo in just 13 seconds. Ken Early was in Las Vegas to see the action unfold both in and outside the octagon and writes about how McGregor is living up to his own hype.
“Maybe it’s stretching things to describe Conor McGregor’s 13-second knockout of Jose Aldo as a miracle. Let’s just say that if he’d been doing this stuff in old Israel 2,000 years ago, there’s a decent chance that McGregorism would today be a major world religion.
Nobody scripts that kind of outcome. Imagine the withering exchanges at the writers’ meeting if somebody suggested it. “So . . . your idea is that he predicts he’ll win by knockout in the first round, after the champ swings a wild right hand, and then he proceeds to knock him out in precisely those circumstances after 13 seconds? Oh I’m sorry, I didn’t realise we were making the ninth fu**ing Harry Potter movie.””
Athletics
The Ireland women's cross-country team managed to secure a team bronze at the European Cross Country Championships for the second consecutive year, in France yesterday.
And it was almost a women’s double as Fionnuala McCormack fell agonisingly short of an individual bronze over the hard 8km course in Hyeres.
The team of McCormack, Lizzie Lee, Caroline Crowley and Ciara Durkhan brought some success for Ireland, overshadowing the men’s team that finished a disappointing 11th place.
Rugby
It was a weekend of mixed results for the Irish provinces in the Champions Cup with Munster losing to Leicester, but still clinging on to a lifeline in the competition, while Leinster were shown the exit door by Toulon. Ulster brightened things up somewhat with their 38-0 trouncing of Toulouse to move up to second in Pool 1.
Munster now face an uphill task to advance from Pool 4 while, for Leinster, a poor season just gets worse. Gerry Thornley was at the Stade Felix Mayol to see the action unfold as a superior Toulon team showed what they are about as they look to go all the way in this year's competition.
GAA
Eamon Donoghue was present in Austin, Texas to see a late Richie Hogan goal rescue a draw for the 2015 All Star hurling selection in their exhibition match against the 2014 team.
Meanwhile, in this week's Tipping Point Brian O'Connor writes about how GAA players are now becoming more aware of their power in relation to county boards.
“The recent ructions in Galway hurling and Mayo football are merely the latest instances of county board administrations struggling to reconcile being in control with players actually having the power.
It is a power rooted in two fundamentals – no one has ever paid through a turnstile to watch a county board suit run around, and amateur players get to choose what they do.”
Cork hurler Patrick Horgan was speaking about the online abuse faced by some players and how they need to ignore it.
“It’s really annoying,” says the former All Star, “when you see fellas nearly crying leaving training. They can hardly move, like. Then to see that happening after probably one mistake out of a whole match. Everyone makes mistakes. That’s when they’ll say it, when no one can say anything back to them. I don’t think there is a place for it, anyway.”
What to watch out for
Soccer: Leicester look to maintain their lead at the top of the league when they take on Chelsea. (Sky Sports 1 from 7pm).
