Inquiries of the US Attorney’s office in New York are met with a blanket statement: “Stanley Tollman is a fugitive.” His Washington DC-based solicitor, Chris Todd, was overseas and did not return my call.The alleged identities of Stanley Tollman’s “foreign business associates” and of the representative of Saffery Champness mentioned in the indictment, will be revealed in the course of the case. The prosecutors are currently serving on the defendants all the documents they have which support their case, and the names will be provided in the course of this “discovery” process.Where all this leaves Chelsea – the football club, that is – kicking off their Premiership season today with a squad full of expensive foreign stars and a manager, Claudio Ranieri, complaining he has no money to spend, is unclear. Chelsea Village is saddled with debts, according to the latest accounts, of £170m, and have made substantial losses for two years running.The Chelsea Action Group, a supporters group which has tirelessly campaigned for openness at Chelsea and against Bates’ regime and policy of building up the “Chelsea Village” complex of hotels, bars and restaurants around Stamford Bridge, said the indictment re-emphasised the need for openness.”Obviously we can’t prove for certain whether a large chunk of our club was owned by Tollman all those years, but it’s fact that he was a director for a decade. The FA has to realise how vital and basic it is for all fans to know who owns their club and to be sure they are decent people with integrity and the interests of the club at heart.”Senior FA sources said they will shortly announce a review and overhaul of all rules and regulations relating to finance and the constitution of clubs, and as part of that the FA is committed to introducing some kind of “fit and proper person test”.

The unfolding of the case against Stanley Tollman, for 10 years a director of Chelsea, and possibly a controlling shareholder, should give them plenty to ponder as they wrestle with their commitment to firmer regulation of the national game.. For all their fortnightly get-togethers, seminars on conflict management, high-tech analysis of flashpoints, fitness tests, fatness tests, eyesight checks and pay rises, Andy D’Urso admits Premiership referees will tackle the curse of “simulation” during the coming campaign by using “gut instinct”. Since then we have had a World Cup scarred by episodes such as Francesco Totti’s debatable dismissal for diving, yet D’Urso remains confident that the snap decisions he and his colleagues make are on balance good and getting better.”The referee in that match [Italy v South Korea] made the judgement from his position,” said D’Urso, whose surname betrays Italian ancestry although he confesses to being an avid England fan. “He can only see it from one angle whereas other people can analyse it from 20 different angles. You could ask 100 referees (about the Totti incident) and get a 50-50 split.”When you blow for simulation you’re accusing a player of cheating, or ‘attempting to deceive’ in our terminology. So if you think you’re going to penalise someone for diving you’ve got to be 100 per cent certain. Diving irritates opposing players and can lead to confrontation and escalating problems, so if it does happen you’ve got to be close at hand.”Towards the end of last season I felt we were getting it right There will always be occasions when you don’t.

But if you analyse it overall, they are few and far between.”D’Urso acknowledges, however, that such decisions, like those which come into the red-card category of serious foul play and illegally denying an opponent a scoring opportunity, come, of necessity, “from the gut”. If that sounds somewhat unscientific, state-of-the-ark even, he balances the statement by arguing that the ?te corps of referees have gained in fitness over the 12 months of the professional era and no longer carry anything resembling a gut.”Our fitness levels have improved greatly, and they needed to because the pace of the game has got quicker,” he said, subconsciously patting a flat stomach during a break in one of the joint training sessions at Lilleshall National Sports Centre. “Changes like the backpass rule mean the ball is in play far more. I think we’re closer to incidents because we’re in better shape. That proximity means we’re better able to make the correct decision.”D’Urso gained unwanted prominence two and half years ago when, in his debut season in the Premiership, he was pursued by abusive Manchester United players after awarding a penalty against Jaap Stam (an experience he will not discuss beyond maintaining that it made him “a better person and a stronger referee”).

Last season, he provoked the wrath of David O’Leary when he controversially sent off Leeds United’s Alan Smith for elbowing a Cardiff player in a combustible FA Cup tie.Unsurprisingly in such circumstances, he stops short of claiming that the referees now feel closer to the players, even though as a teenager he was in the same Romford Royals team as two players who would go on to represent England, Tony Cottee and Paul Parker.”I wouldn’t say we’re closer, though it’s not a them-and-us situation, and I think there’s a lot more respect for us because of the changes made last summer. When we go out as a team of four (with two assistants and the fourth official) before a Premiership fixture, players and their fitness coaches actually turn round to see what we’re doing. It looks professional.”An old adage asserts that a good official is one that goes unnoticed during a game, let alone before it. D’Urso – who, unlike some contemporaries, reads press criticism of himself but feels able to “shut it off” – begs to differ. “Sometimes you have to make decisions that get you noticed,” he said, echoing the World Cup final referee, Pierluigi Collina. “You can’t hide from them.”Refereeing is about doing a job in accordance with the laws It’s also about man-management and communication. Do those three pretty well and you’ll go a long way.” Literally in D’Urso’s case, for he joined the Fifa international list last season.