If, as seems tragically possible, Andy Considine’s year ended in an agonised heap on the Tofiq Bahramov Stadium pitch, it should weigh heavily on UEFA’s shoulders.
He should not have fallen there, for he should never have stood there in the first place.
There may never be conclusive proof the surface caused what looks to be significant damage, and it is conceded freak accidents can nevertheless strike on even the best of parks. But it stands to reason that the less likely a player is to find a reliable, level landing spot when descending from a challenge, the shorter are the odds against a catastrophic torsion injury.
For the game’s authorities to actively cut those odds by ignoring the calls – from both clubs, for pity’s sake – to permit a change of venue was crass stupidity and total insensitivity to life outside football’s elite.
When this column noted the completely unacceptable condition of this gashed sandbox last week, at time of writing Aberdeen had not even confirmed they would be the ones visiting it. If UEFA feels that this is long enough for clubs involved in qualifying rounds to arrange logistics for fixtures thousands of miles away, they simply have no case that they had insufficient notice to sanction an emergency stadium switch.
This, remember, was a body which managed to avert a financial hit by relocating a Champions League final from one side of Europe to the other within five days to counteract travel restrictions. Yet it is too inflexible to arrange for a club to play a tie on its own regular ground when it is only the welfare of men like Considine at stake.
In these extreme times, when so many have temporarily sacrificed their own amenity for the health of others, that UEFA failed to do likewise is a disgrace.