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Tuesday was the day that the gloves came off in the battle to stage the 2018 World Cup.
By making a formal complaint to FIFA, England 2018 signalled to its arch-rival Russia that from now on, in the five-and-a-half weeks that remain before the all-important December 2 vote, it will be playing hardball.
Quite when increasingly hard-pressed FIFA officials, ensconced in their ultra-modern slate-grey citadel in the hills above Zurich, will find the time to adjudicate the matter, if that is what it comes to, remains to be seen.
But it is the escalation of hostilities that is the main point here.
The irony is that as word of the move first broke - on this website - in the genteel surrounds of the luxurious Zurich hotel where this year’s International Football Arena (IFA) conference was taking place, relations between Russia 2018 bid leader, Alexei Sorokin, and the British press appeared to be taking a turn for the better.
As Sorokin, one of three bid leaders to have made presentations at IFA, interrupted his lunch to give a no-holds-barred briefing, there was an unmistakable air of appreciation among the gaggle of predominantly English journalists who were on hand, on the grounds that a) that Sorokin had actually put his head above the parapet and b) that he was making considerable efforts to be frank.
His most significant contribution was the disclosure that the Russian Football Union had last week adopted a memorandum on, as he put it, combating any racist outbreaks.
This came at the end of a lengthy statement about Russian football fans that is worth reproducing at some length given the hoo-hah kicked up - in my view rightly - over the notorious banner that followed the transfer of Nigerian striker Peter Odemwingie from Russian club Lokomotiv Moscow to West Bromwich Albion of the English Premier League.
This showed a banana and said “Thanks West Brom”.
“It’s only one small banner that really messed it up for many people,” was how Sorokin reflected on that in Zurich.
Anyway, this rumination on Russian fans went as follows
“We are coming towards a very well-developed system of interaction between the football union and our supporters,” he said, as we clustered around a tiny round table at the back of the main conference area.
“We have to acknowledge that the fans’ association in Russia has only existed for two years.
“We still have a long way to go.
“However, we have been very content with the pace of development of these relations.
“The President of the Russian Fans’ Union is on the board of the Russian Football Union.
“Even they cannot control single outbreaks.
“But they certainly are able to take measures after that in their own environment.
“We cannot say it’s flawless, but it is on the right track.
“These things spring up all over the world.
“We are no different.”
Translation – the rouble has dropped (albeit belatedly): Russia recognises it has a problem and is trying to do something about it.
Moreover, the welcome tone of humility with which the message was delivered is not something I had previously detected in the Russia 2018 campaign.
Let’s see if it lasts.
Meanwhile, unless further significant revelations in FIFA’s ongoing cash-for-votes probe turn the whole process into a black farce, it looks more and more like we are set for a grandstand finish to this campaign back in Zurich in the first days of December.
Though the VIPs attending this tumultuous finale have not, so far as I am aware, been revealed, I would be very surprised if this does not, in effect, pit heavyweight world statesmen Vladimir Putin and David Beckham against each other.
Had the Russian Prime Minister, I asked Sorokin, as our little gathering broke up, ever met the English midfielder cum global marketing phenom?
“Not in my presence,” he replied.
It promises to be a unique collision.
David Owen is a specialist sports journalist who worked for 20 years for the Financial Times in the United States, Canada, France and the UK. He ended his FT career as sports editor after the 2006 World Cup and is now freelancing, including covering the 2008 Beijing Olympics and 2010 World Cup. Owen’s Twitter feed can be accessed at www.twitter.com/dodo938