Chelsea’s pathetic fine for Abramovich-era payments puts Tierney row in shade

Roman Abramovich looks on during a Champions League game in 2015. He had to sell Chelsea in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Photograph: Tony O’Brien/Action Images/Reuters

You might feel enough has already been said about the Chelsea huddle. You would be wrong, of course. It is impossible to say enough about the Chelsea huddle. A week on, that moment when the Chelsea players formed a scrum on the centre circle around what appeared at first glance to be a depressed hatstand, but turned out to be the immovable figure of referee Paul Tierney, is still the most moreishly haunting image of the season.

What did it mean? Even the basic geometry is fascinating, with its fractal-like symmetries. Here we have the Chelsea players making a circle inside a circle around a sphere on top of a smaller circle, above which a single bald head protrudes like an orbital moon.