You cannot mention the European Union in the UK without getting into a verbal punch-up. So the powers that be have chosen to mark its 50th birthday with a surefire, politics-free stunt: a soccer match.

Noting that 1958 witnessed not just the Treaty of Rome, which established the forerunner of the EU, but the debut of Manchester United as the first English club to enter European cup competition, commission president José Manuel Barroso seized on the idea to host a Man U vs EU match.