I thought abuse of fellow members had been outlawed long since. In this case it seems to have been wholly unprovoked, so it looks like Ake caught gnu at the wrong time of the month.

I take it gnu has no problem with the financial structure of a sport in which the 20 teams of the English premier league are now to get an additional £10-£15 million a year each to squander in wages for players who are already raking in up to £250,000 a week; or in which Thierry Henry, for instance, can unashamedly cheat Ireland out of a World-Cup finals while playing for France, in what was supposed to have been a walkover tie (France having been seeded for financial reasons to smooth their progress).

Without a doubt worldclass football can be exciting, particularly at club level and more particularly in the English premiership. But it is on course to self-destruct.