In a development that would make Gibbon weep into his tea, Artan has been stripped of its World Cup berth yet handed the Uefa Super Cup as a sort of consolation prize. The decision reeks of the same intellectual decadence that saw Rome handed bread and circuses while the barbarians sharpened their axes at the gates. British refereeing standards, once the envy of the civilised world, now resemble a Victorian farce: all bluster and no substance.
The arbiters of the game have become like the later Roman jurists, more concerned with procedural niceties than with justice. Artan's exclusion from the World Cup is a scandal, but the Super Cup award is an insult wrapped in a paradox. It suggests that the footballing authorities have lost all sense of proportion, substituting merit with sentiment.
This is the sort of muddle-headed thinking that leads to empires crumbling. If the men in black cannot maintain consistent standards, we might as well revert to trial by combat. The game itself is being betrayed by those sworn to protect it.
