It is not common practice for ink-stained watchdogs in the corridors of power to applaud officialdom, but this column is prepared to make an exception.
Let's hear it then for Joseph S Blatter, protector of all that is sacred in the realm of football and a few things that maybe are not.
For reasons that are not difficult to understand, the two global sports bodies of which the media are most suspicious and cynical are the International Olympic Committee and the Federation Internationale de Football Association, commonly known as Fifa.
Sepp Blatter, as he is usually known, has been president of the latter for over 10 years. That's a long time in an awfully big job and he's taken some stick along the way.
Some of his ideas have been thought to be a little daft, there was much gossip attending his election as Fifa president in 1998 and he caught a bit of flak, I can tell you, when he suggested that women footballers should "wear tighter shorts to create a more female aesthetic".
World bodies such as the IOC and Fifa are seen as fair game because of the power they wield, the money that goes around, the innuendo they attract and the Royalty-like reverence heaped on their top office-bearers by their lackeys.
Blatter comes from Switzerland, speaks five languages and spent a part of his formative years in sports journalism. He therefore can't be all that bad, you follow.
Since the start of the Confederations Cup he has been making public appearances at the right moments, delivering pronouncements that are tactically and politically astute and presumably doing big things behind the scenes.
Furthermore, he has demonstrated a tolerance for local culture and custom and a reassuring measure of diplomacy.
On the question of his power, he has the ability to bring a nation to its knees with just one terse statement, something along the lines of: "I sadly have to announce that such and such a country does not have the capacity to deliver this event."
With a year to go before the 2010 World Cup, he got up the other day and declared that South Africa was already ready. Coming from him, this had the effect of silencing the doubters, reassuring the global community and shrewdly compelling us to go the extra mile.
So thank you, sir, for bringing us the exciting and surprising Confederations Cup and for your support on the road ahead.
For this, I must doff my cap.