Infamy! Infamy! They've all got it in for me!

Fifa, Fifa said in a statement released not long before midnight on Saturday Zurich time (look, we’ve all had nights where we’ve got a bit emotional and fired off a WhatsApp we regret), “will not support, facilitate or tolerate any process concerning the election of the Fifa President that is inconsistent with Fifa’s Statutes, democratic procedures and established governance framework.” Of course it won’t. Why should it? Fifa is, after all, a byword for good practice.

Just because Gianni Infantino was re-elected unopposed for his last two terms shouldn’t be taken as indicating democratic backsliding. And you only have to look at how decisions are made by Fifa to see how serious they are about good governance. The awarding of the 2034 World Cup to Saudi Arabia was the model of how to run a bidding process. Invoking Article 27 of the disciplinary code every time it looks like a famous or at least convenient player might be suspended is the action of a body obsessed by integrity. Bypassing the Fifa Council, artificial deadlines, governing by fiat, a proliferation of committees to ease the wheels of clientelism… all of that shows just how seriously they take Fifa’s Statutes, democratic procedures and established governance framework.

“Recent reporting has included unsubstantiated assertions and demonstrably false claims concerning Fifa and its president,” the statement went on. “Speculation and insinuation should not be presented as fact, and repetition does not make an allegation true. Fifa welcomes legitimate scrutiny. But scrutiny is not a licence to distort facts, amplify unsubstantiated allegations or manufacture distractions designed to undermine progress.”

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The 20th anniversary edition of Behind the Curtain came out on August 6, with a new introduction. If you want the new material, make sure you get the version with the pink cover.

The Power and the Glory, my history of the World Cup, is now out in paperback. Buy it here or here.

Issue Sixty-One of The Blizzard is available here, featuring Brazil, Argentina, Belgium’s first international coach, a photo-essay from Uzbekistan, memories of Scotland in 1998, a look at Curaçao and Cape Verde and an investigation into what went wrong for Serbia-Montenegro in 2006.

On It Was What It Was, the football history podcast, we continue our series on the birth of Total Football. Members can binge all five episodes now. Join up here. Listen here.

On Libero, we look at whether the Premier League needs to sign a big star. Listen here.

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Fifa welcomes legitimate scrutiny? That must be why Infantino has given one press-conference in the past two years. Meaningful scrutiny tends not to come via influencers who pretend to be fleeing imaginary pursuers while barking like a dog. But, still, it’s great to know, because there are some points it would be really helpful if they could clear up.