When UEFA decided eight years ago to expand the European Championship from 16 to 24 teams, its then president Michel Platini promised the standard of the tournament would not drop.
Europe is preparing for UEFA's first full-blown 'week of football' as the marathon Euro 2016 qualifying competition gets into full swing - although it promises to be a distinctly underwhelming experience.
Images from Day 6 of the French Open in Paris on Friday.
AS Roma missed the chance to put pressure on Serie A leaders Juventus after playing out a frustrating goalless draw with Inter Milan in front of a half empty Stadio Olimpico on Saturday.
News of all that's transpired on and off the football field
'Often reviled, mostly ignored, sometimes venerated, he has taken it all in his stride.' 'He has stood by the nation through thick and thin,' says Brigadier Gurmeet Kanwal (retd).
A summary of sports events and sports persons, who made news on Tuesday
Bernard Tomic is set to sit out the Australian Open after Tennis Australia (TA) decided not to award him a wildcard to the main draw, the organisers said on Thursday.
The Danish World No 3 ended 2017 with the biggest title of her career in Singapore and returned a day after thrashing Madison Brengle in her season opener to hit 21 winners against eight unforced errors in the 53-minute win over Martic.
Neymar's hat-trick lit up a powerful Brazil performance as the 32 nations taking part in this year's World Cup tested out their squads on a busy night of friendlies on Wednesday which also brought victories for Spain, Germany and France.
Images from matches played on Day 5 at the Australian Open in Melbourne Park on Friday
Clubbed in a veritable group of death for next year's World Cup, Australia believe they can spring a surprise while fellow Asian qualifiers Japan, South Korea and Iran were more cautious with their optimism despite being dealt kinder draws.
Two organisations tracking tax violations and money laundering worldwide identify totally different sets of countries for lack of financial transparency.
The vice-president will be the second Indian to be accorded the honour at the Oxford Centre for Islamic Studies. Nikhil Lakshman reports.
Images from Tuesday night's UEFA Champions League group stage matches.
Juventus striker Gonzalo Higuain again showed his killer instinct with two expertly-taken goals in a late 3-1 win at Torino after their less illustrious neighbours had scored first and dominated the Serie A game on Sunday.
The World Bank would provide loans to India at higher than its existing concessional rates but lower than the market rate.
Roger Federer continued his smooth progress at the French Open on Friday with a straightforward 6-4, 6-3, 6-2 defeat of Bosnian Damir Dzumhur to reach the fourth round.
Cristiano Ronaldo scored two stunning goals and took his international tally to 70 as he led Portugal to an emphatic 3-0 win over Hungary in a World Cup qualifier on Saturday.
Director Danis Tanovic, producer Anurag Kashyap and actor Emraan Hashmi have created an inspiring work of international collaboration with Tigers. Arthur J Pais reports from Toronto.
News of all that's transpired on and off the football field.
'Omerta is a work of true moral force; it is, at the risk of sounding fancy, a motion picture for our times,' says Sreehari Nair.
La Liga champions Real Madrid beat Getafe 3-1 on Saturday with a goal from Gareth Bale and two strikes from Cristiano Ronaldo to go 12 points behind leaders Barcelona and warm up for next week's Champions League game at Paris St Germain.
On this joyous occasion, rediff.com wishes all its readers 'Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year,' as we a take a look at pictures of Christmas festivities from across the globe.
Thousands of Muslims posing in front of holy sites for a selfie during the Haj, has angered some conservative clerics and sparking a debate over legitimacy of such actions during the annual pilgrimage.
Facebook owns WhatsApp and Microsoft owns Skype, the two services that are at the centre of the current "net neutrality battle".
Olympic champion and world record holder David Rudisha ran from the front and trusted his finishing pace to regain the world 800 metres title at the World Athletics Championships in Beijing, on Tuesday.
When Michel Platini revamped the European Championship, turning the finals from a tough, lean 16-team tournament in 2012 into a flabby, 'roll up, anybody's welcome' 24-side affair in 2016, it was not surprising he ran into a blizzard of rebukes.
Arsenal and Manchester City meet at The Emirates on Saturday when both teams will seek to roar into life after making spluttering starts to their Premier League campaigns.
A summary of Wednesday's matches in the UEFA Champions League.
FIFA will go ahead with its controversial decision to stage World Cup matches at midday in tropical venues, president Sepp Blatter said on Tuesday as soccer's governing body announced a bafflingly complex procedure for Friday's draw.
'When you go to the root cause of any strife or violence, you find an agitated mind. If this agitation is not dealt with, then any other solution will be temporary and not as effective.' 'This is where meditation and the breathing techniques play a crucial role in creating a crime-free, violence-free society.'
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Throughout a quarter century of proxy war, India has shown tremendous restraint in the face of grave provocation. It is inconceivable that any other nation would have refrained from launching trans-LoC operations to eliminate terrorist training camps and interdict known routes of infiltration, says Brigadier Gurmeet Kanwal (retd).
Aseem Chhabra tell us how he watched 302 films in 365 days on airplanes, on Netflix, Amazon, iTunes, Google, Hulu, DVDs and even on YouTube.
Meet Cassie de Pecol, a 27-year-old traveller from Connecticut, United States, who visited 196 countries in 18-and-a-half months, making her the fastest person to visit every country in the world.
Vinita Bisht and Vinita Kamte lost their husbands -- one an NSG commando, the other an IPS officer -- in the 26/11 terror attack. Six years later, Archana Masih/Rediff.com meets them to discover that closure is one of the hardest things to find.
Belgium make Wales wait after Hazard's strike, while Czechs beat Latvia to qualify
'The US-India relationship is in a different league altogether,' Obama administration officials tell Aziz Haniffa/Rediff.com in Washington, DC.
US Open champion Martin Kaymer sank an eight-foot birdie putt at the first extra hole to beat Bubba Watson in the four-man PGA Grand Slam of Golf in Bermuda on Wednesday.
