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High impact: can rugby tough it out against an unforgiving future?

Even if all our dreams of a tilt at the World Cup and Champions Cup come true this year, rugby is still a sport facing overwhelming challenges

Matt Cooper: Liverpool FC transfer rumours raise questions about club’s future

The football club was recently valued at £3.6 billion, but if FSG, its American owner, sells up, what will it mean for the team beloved of so many Irish fans?

Matt Cooper: Is Denis O’Brien hoping out of sight is out of mind on the Siteserv findings?

The billionaire businessman, in the past notably litigious and visible in the media, has stayed silent as the draft findings of the Siteserv inquiry emerge

Matt Cooper: Our president’s generalisations about private enterprise are not helpful

We may not agree with Elon Musk but the reality is that he and other billionaire entrepreneurs have done a great deal to accelerate innovations to combat the climate crisis

Matt Cooper: McDonagh’s departure from BoI brings bankers’ pay back into focus

If politicians insist that the bank’s new boss is paid a maximum of €500,000, the share price will likely fall further and Irish pension funds may suffer

Matt Cooper: Le Pen as leader of France would be huge threat to EU from within

In hock to Putin and Russian banks, determined to rewrite the constitution and deny immigrants their rights, Marine Le Pen as French president would set her country on a collision course with the European Union

Matt Cooper: Megalomanic Musk plays to his fanboys with his ‘disruptive’ bid for Twitter

The Tesla and SpaceX millionaire has cited free speech concerns and ‘the future of civilisation’ as driving his Twitter ambitions.

Matt Cooper: Musk’s Twitter move may give him even more reach than old-style media moguls

The Tesla tycoon, who joined the board of Twitter last week, is a force of nature who may well seek to bend the social media platform to his will

Matt Cooper: The DAA needs a priority check on its decision to do a deal with Saudi Arabia

The Dublin Airport Authority last week celebrated winning a five-year contract with Saudi Arabia, a country notorious for its poor human rights record

Matt Cooper: It’s the wrong time for Sinn Féin to push the EU on support for a united Ireland

The party seems tone deaf to how such a request from a wealthy member state comes across to other nations reeling from the Ukraine conflict

Matt Cooper: How can Britain be the guarantor for a Ukrainian peace deal when it has shown such bad faith on Brexit?

Matt Cooper: The collapse of Abramovich’s empire lays bare the devalued standards of the British Premier League

Chelsea Football Club, which lived off financial top-ups from its Russian owner for 19 years, should not now be given public funds to pay the eye-watering wages of players

Matt Cooper: Long overdue end to vexatious gagging writs may be on the way

So called ‘anti-Slapp’ measures that form part of justice minister Helen McEntee’s proposed reform of the defamation laws may prevent powerful people muzzling media comment with threats of legal action

Matt Cooper: Big Phil’s own words could land any damages case in the bunker

The former EU Commissioner may be considering demanding compensation for the ‘damage suffered’ when he had to step down, but he is very unlikely to get it

Matt Cooper: No amount of Metaverse guff can distract from Zuckerberg’s failings

The Facebook founder concentrated on the future in his message to his ‘Metamates’ last week, but the company’s best days may already be behind it

Matt Cooper: Delaney-era guff will not help FAI win trust, or a men’s team sponsor

Though it puts forward some grand and worthy plans, the association’s new strategy document is vague about where the money will come from

Matt Cooper: Greenwood allegations are about more than football for Man United

Even if the footballer is not charged or if charged, he is found not guilty, the club faces an ethical question, not a commercial one

Matt Cooper: It’s not yet time to yell ‘Cut’, but Netflix’s best days may be over

The streaming behemoth is an extraordinary success, with 222 million viewers worldwide, but faces stiff competition from the likes of Disney and Amazon

Matt Cooper: Whatever trouble may be ahead, let’s face the music and dance

Fingers crossed that we’ve not acted too quickly in lifting restrictions, but with our society and economy on the brink, it’s a chance worth taking

Matt Cooper: Shane Lowry may live to regret his involvement in Saudi ‘sportswashing’

The country has a dire human rights record and is using its wealth in a bid to launder its reputation