It seems you can rely on the FA to embarrass itself - English football's governing body appears perpetually lumbered with a built-in ability to conjure a public relations farce out of thin air.
This week's Soho Square effort was the withdrawal of a DVD claiming to feature the best post-war England internationals. The reason? It included no black players, while featuring some white players whose qualifications for international greatness could be described as questionable.
Although it is understood that the list of internationals submitted to the production company included black players, the finished product was allegedly not checked, and the FA withdrew it as complaints came in.
It's a gruesome gaffe, coming so soon after the FA's rightfully vociferous condemnation of the appalling racist abuse hurled by Spanish fans throughout an international friendly against England at Madrid's Bernabeu stadium in November.
In the same month, the Birmingham striker Dwight Yorke was subjected to racism as he warmed up on the touchline at his former club Blackburn.
And weeks before that, the Spanish national team manager, Luis Aragones was overheard making racially abusive remarks about Arsenal striker Thierry Henry in what he claimed was an attempt to motivate Henry's Arsenal teammate Jose Antonio Reyes.
Henry, speaking at the launch of a new pan-European anti-racism campaign yesterday, said he could "forgive but not forget" what Aragones had said.
Like many, the French international striker might be wondering why it is that players and fans have done more than the game's official bodies to address the problems of racism.
Although important strides have been made by many clubs and organisations throughout Europe – groups such as Kick It Out in the UK, for example - the pathetically derisory £45,000 fine imposed by football's world governing body FIFA on Spain's FA over the racism at the England game provided another indication that too many people in power can talk a good game but won't back it with the appropriate action.
The words are often noble, but the courage to use power to set real examples appears to be lacking. If Spain's FA (which was slow to apologise for what happened at the Bernabeu) gets let off in that way, what incentive do football authorities elsewhere have to get a grip on racism in the game?
It is hard to avoid the impression that football is still awash with casual complacency. The shiny, relentlessly hyped world of the modern game – light years away from the outcast sport that football used to be in so many countries – presents a reassuring front, but one that many remain too unwilling to peek behind.
