Within the 37 pages of legal explanation clearing Mikel Arteta of his misconduct charge is one striking, watershed conclusion: that attacking Var, and all its myriad deficiencies, is now a form of protected speech. As histrionic as the Spaniard’s rant was after Arsenal lost at Newcastle last month, calling Var “embarrassing” and a “disgrace”, an independent panel chaired by a King’s Counsel found these labels were perfectly legitimate in the context of the system’s chronic failures. The case of
“Complex and constantly evolving.” This is how the Football Association has chosen to frame the deeply uncomfortable transgender row that has reached its doors. Except the brutal reality, which it is high time a governing body had the gumption to articulate, is that it is neither of these things.
When Wembley Stadium’s giant arch was lit in October 2006 for Diwali, the Hindu and Sikh festival of light, no one expected that years later the idea of illuminating it would become so complex and controversial.