To be fair, it was a tricky one. The European Union’s sports ministers gathered in Slovenia for one of their scheduled meetings to discuss whatever it is EU sports ministers discuss: the parlous state of Danish hockey; whether Geoff Hurst’s second goal actually crossed the line; the subsidy regime for Maltese polo.

And would you believe it, those wretched Tibetans go and start a ballyhoo in Lhasa, practically daring the Chinese to crack down. What were the sports ministers to do? Naturally, they were out of their depth on issues of substance. We know this because they are sports ministers, in much the same way that we understood why our gym teachers were only allowed to teach geography.