Christmas may have been & gone but there are still fairytales out there. Welcome to IBWM John Verrall.

Disgusted with the amounts of money being spent on players these days? Then Adamo Digby has news for you: football has always been this way.

Ladies and gentlemen, please be upstanding.......

For every end of season miraculous escape, the trap door still has to open. Michael Hudson reports from Japan.

After mixed fortunes at the World Cup & time now passed long enough to reflect properly, John Burn-Murdoch looks to the future for African international football.

Adriano's career should have been stellar if his video game counterpart was anything to go by. Josh Clarke reports on life vrs Pro Evo.

Bangladesh has a population 160 million people with a shared passion for the game, yet their team is ranked 159th by FIFA. Why? Welcome to IBWM, Quazi Zulquarnain.

Adam Bate examines three managers who could benefit from a little, er, adventure.

After fourteen rounds, the Portuguese Liga has paused until January 9th. What better moment, then, for some awards? Ben Shave is judge, jury, and executioner.

Having lost one talisman, could losing another actually be the quickest and perhaps only way Sampdoria can improve? Adamo Digby explains.

Michal Zachodny walks us through Polish football's 2010.

With the second part of his look at the complications surrounding Cypriot football, here's Ryan Hubbard.

FC Copenhagen's rise & domestic dominance has been down to a number of different factors & it could be argued, it's benefiting Danish football as a whole. Stuart Fuller explains.

Being robbed of your football club for financial reasons is just about the saddest thing that can happen to a football fan. Domm Norris writes about the latest group of fans watching on in agony.

Cypriot football's story is more complicated then you could ever imagine. With the first of a two-parter, here's Ryan Hubbard.

Name us ten English coaches that have acheived success outside of the UK.  Did you get Willy Garbutt?  Well done you.  Here's Sam Lee on a true football revolutionary.

When is it reasonable for the next global superstar to be the first name on a teamsheet? Can one goal define a career? Bojan Krkić, still waiting to make that final step up, must be hoping it cannot.  Alex Dimond wonders whether momentum is slowing.

1986.  El Diego owned the Mexico World Cup, but 1986 was also significant for another reason - Canada were there.  They hadn't been before, and they haven't been since.  Any reason for optimism?  Welcome to IBWM Caleb Cousens.

Following the horror of Heysel, Juventus travelled to Tokyo for the Intercontinental Cup. Adamo Digby recalls the contribution of a certain Frenchman.

In today's Independent (15th December), Glenn Moore evokes memories of Beveren's Belgian Cup final team of 2004 which, incredibly, included 10 players from Cote d'Ivoire. Dan Brennan decides to take a different tack, paying tribute to Beveren's 11^th man – the mysterious Igors Stepanovs.