The riskiest game of chicken ever was weeks from causing the extinction of Chelsea Football Club.
As the UK Government's deadline of May 31, 2022 for the club to be sold approached, Roman Abramovich's trusted aide Marina Granovskaia was ready to ignore them, and risk one of the game's global giants going into oblivion.
Granovskaia believed she could call the bluff of Boris Johnson's administration after Abramovich was sanctioned following Russia's invasion of Ukraine for ties to Vladimir Putin. Amid a chokehold that meant Chelsea could not even sell tickets to matches, Granovskaia gambled - arguing that it was impossible to conduct a sale this size in 12 months, never mind three.