On the eve of the vote that was to send the World Cup to Qatar and send Fifa into the biggest crisis in its history, Lord Coe flew to Zurich and, drawing on his vast experience in the business of sporting politics, told the assembled journalists, with a little sniff, that the whole thing “smelt OK”.

How wrong he was. From the moment the results came in the next day — England eliminated in the first round of the ballot with just two votes, Russia chosen for 2018, Qatar selected, to astonishment, for 2022 — there was the smell of something suspicious. As we approach the fifth anniversary of the infamous vote, we can say with certainty that the whole thing stank.

Stank of what?