The Best And Very Worst April Fools Pranks From Across The Sporting World On This Dark Day

April Fools Day is here again, aka the day smart people take a holiday from the internet. People on Twitter today break down neatly into three camps:

1. Those tweeting fake things as April Fools jokes.

2. Those tweeting real things as April Fools jokes.

3. Those despairing about April Fool jokes.

(This year, in Ireland, there is a fourth category ---- people grappling with the Kildare Now jihadi story)

Just so you don't get caught out, here are all the sporting April Fools spoofs we've seen so far.

Ireland kicked out of the Euros

Something about the jersey Ireland wore against Switzerland getting us ejected from a major competition. Essentially, this is clickbait masked as an April Fools joke --- a terrifying headline that a reader mentally debunks after three seconds of reading the story.

EURO SHOCKER: Ireland may be kicked out of Euro 2016 over 1916 jersey row https://t.co/DKusGv3l2l pic.twitter.com/2uGes4zcZC

— Sunday World (@sundayworld) April 1, 2016

The kicker:

The exclusion of Ireland would mean that Bosnia and Herzegovina, who we beat in the play-offs for the tournament, would take our place in France.

Head of their FAI Prvi April was clearly overjoyed by the news, if a little unprepared.

“I’ll have to cancel our summer holidays now. The missus will kill me,” he told our reporter.

Arsenal's retractable sunroof at the Emirates

A new low in the April Fools industry, as this actually sponsored by an automobile maker. In the future, all April Fools Day spoofs will be advertisements. As for Arsenalisation - surely that is the systematic process of monetising every aspect of your football club while the team itself leaves the supporters despairing year after year after year.

Opening April 2017: The world's first retractable sunroof at Emirates Stadium, inspired by @CitroenUK technology.https://t.co/c0FTWnC3vZ

— Arsenal (@Arsenal) April 1, 2016

Marty Morrissey to be knighted

A poor effort considering last year's almost believable Conor McGregor spoof thinkpiece that came from Montrose a day after the whole McGregor-Aldo farce at the Point. The producers of 'Morning Ireland' are asking people to believe that Morrissey had been selected for some special merit from Queen Elizabeth. As if.

Breaking: Marty Morrissey has been offered an honorary knighthood for his services to sport @petulamartyn reports pic.twitter.com/F4Tqxgnd5u

— Morning Ireland (@morningireland) April 1, 2016

Joe Schmidt has quit as Ireland coach

An exclusive from RugbyLad.com ---this one actually reveals itself by the last sentence of its bogus story.

Conor McGregor meet and greet in Naas tomorrow

Gustafsson retires from MMA

Proof that April Fools jokes can still work. This one is borderline believable as it comes from Gustafsson himself. Thanking all of his sponsors seems to give the piece credence but it's his retirement plans that give him away. "I alway said, once I am finished with fighting I will move away from Stockholm and enjoy farmer life, that's what I will do. Quality time with my dogs and cows far away from town."

This one has fooled a lot of people on Twitter.

Mourinho to Nigeria

At least this is a somewhat plausible one. Caretaker coach Samson Siasia failed to qualify Nigeria for the African Confederation Cup this week. Mourinho is out of work. Goal at least went to the trouble of fleshing the story out with detail (interesting backroom team), even if they gave the game away when they said that Mourinho had done an interview with them.

Southampton's emoji crest

One of the better efforts this year - blindlingly obviously fake, but rewarding for readers. The emoji crest is actually funny to look at it and the story on Southampton's website is a subtle critique of the vacuity of modern football clubs, with their fan-driven focus groups and the laughable links between the emoji and Southampton's 'values'.