Fifa could do more to unravel tangles like the Rice mess

Once when asked to describe jazz, the famous pianist Thomas Fats Waller replied, “if you don’t know by now, don’t mess with it”. The quote is both sanitised — a four-letter word other than mess was used — and often misattributed (to Louis Armstrong).

For many it encapsulates their frustration with Declan Rice and his reticence about declaring for the Republic of Ireland: Declan, if you don’t know you’re Irish by now, don’t mess with us.

And yet, and especially given that we have not heard from the player, it seems unfair to judge him so harshly.