At first these conversations were mildly amusing, but now they’re making me lose the will to live – and it’s all Michel Platini’s fault. Well, sort of anyway.

Because to understand why Euro 2016 has been less a football tournament and more an impenetrable algorithm, one has to go back to September 2008 when Uefa’s member associations voted to expand the Euros from 16 teams to 24.

The expansion had been the brainchild of the then Uefa president Platini, and you could hardly fault his logic. Yes the tournament structure had been perfect but expanding it would mean more matches, and more money for the TV companies and the national associations.