Which brings us back to the heart of Crouch’s proposals – the buying and selling of football clubs and who gets to own them. Abramovich did not just own Chelsea, there were also 70 properties in this country including seven houses. There were the vast bills he was allowed to pay for legal and financial services in the United Kingdom. He is a collector of art, and a patron of the London art world to the tune of hundreds of millions of pounds. His children attended expensive English private schools. Abramovich was Chelsea’s owner and that is football’s shame, but there are also many other sectors of the modern British economy that will be quietly happy for football to take the hit.

Crouch has never fully explained her thinking on the Saudi Arabian PIF-led consortium which acquired Newcastle United around the time her review was published. Her perspective seemed to be that there was not much that could be done. Which is to say that the Saudis have invested in much more than simply Geordie hopes and dreams when it comes to the British economy – they too are in high-end property, business and all the rest. One wonders whether it will be just football which is not allowed to deal with the despots and their enablers – or is a Conservative Party that has many of its own Russian donors prepared to pass serious legislation for everyone?

Therein lies the problem for Crouch and her ownership tests. She has proposed measures that would seek forensic examination of potential investors, including a close look at the “integrity and reputation of close family members”. If that level of scrutiny is to be applied then football will have to accept the fate but it would only be fair that the same measures are applied to Tory donors and London prep schools and every Knightsbridge estate agent.

At the Premier League, there is a determination to add an element to the owners and directors’ test which encompasses the human rights and political affiliations of potential new investors and owners. As ever, football is being asked to lead the way ahead of legislation about who can have a stake in British public life. The League itself is caught between the clubs themselves and owners who do not want to frighten off new money, and a dangerous reputational problem that the biggest football league in the world is fuelled in part by dirty money.

The Premier League and Football Association face the removal of their independence in favour of this independent regulator, which wants redistribution and clean money – and about time too. At Chelsea, the sunlight has burst in and after 19 years the British government is finally prepared to call Abramovich what he is, never mind the expensive lawyers.

Will it just be football that is expected to subject itself to a regulator, or will everyone else be held to the same standards?