We have become wearily accustomed to professional football’s nauseating and hypocritical embrace of woke causes to disguise its own amorality and venality.
Rainbow laces, taking the knee to Black Lives Matter, the ludicrous pretence that the women’s game, however laudable, is somehow the equal of the Premier League.
It would be easy to dismiss this insincere grandstanding as mere window dressing. But the case of Newcastle United fan Linzi Smith has exposed the sinister underbelly of our morally corrupt national game.
You might have thought that Ms Smith was the kind of supporter who would be welcomed with open arms, a poster girl for the enlightened face of modern football.