Take a moment. This is not a concept that can easily be taken on board. Deep breaths. But what if – bear with this; it will sound ridiculous – what if the Football Association is attempting to be machiavellian and is doing it well?
Yes, this is the FA who dished out handbags to try to persuade Fifa executive committee members to vote for its World Cup bid when Russia was offering paintings from the state archive and Qatar was doing deals for a couple of dozen fighter jets.
