Grand gestures do little but distract from main event

Ho hum. This column has touched before on sport’s propensity to be sidetracked by events which have little or nothing to do with the events taking place inside the white lines, or whatever the equivalent parameters may be in the various codes that demand our attention, and here we are again.

There may be no such thing as an uneventful week in football in this era of the ubiquitous Sky Sports but this is inarguably one to savour what with four Champions League quarter-finals, a round of genuinely crucial Premier League fixtures and two FA Cup semi-finals as well as other fixtures in Ireland, Scotland and elsewhere.

We have already been treated to Borussia Dortmund’s injury-time comeback and Lionel Messi’s latest feat of brilliance and yet so much of the recent coverage of the game in England and, thus, here too has centred on whether or not Margaret Thatcher should be afforded a minute’s silence at grounds in the UK this weekend.