Said & Done: ‘It was unlucky for Olga – she really is a charming girl’

Man of the week

Gianni Infantino - starting his second year at Fifa with a) an open letter pledge to keep rebranding, “protect football’s integrity” and “change the face of the organisation”, and b) a trip to Harare for an audience with Robert Mugabe.

• Also part of the visit: addressing a birthday gala for millionaire ex-Mugabe regime MP and FA head Philip Chiyanga, AKA “Captain Fiasco”: “Philip, I am inspired by your energy, mentality, passion. Everyone in football respects you.”

Also endorsed last week

Italy FA head and re-election candidate Carlo Tavecchio - convicted five times since 1970 for forgery, tax evasion and abuse of office, and banned for racism in 2014. Uefa head Aleksander Ceferin: “I have an excellent opinion of Carlo Tavecchio. He’s an honest man - passionate and independent minded.”

Best newcomer

Alexei Smertin – named Russia 2018’s anti-racism tsar, 17 months after explaining what it means when “fans give bananas to black guys … it’s just for fun. I think the media makes the wrong image of Russia.”

• Working with Smertin to turn it round:

a) 2018 chair and deputy PM Vitaly Mutko, who told black players to stop complaining about Russian fans in 2014 - “I don’t know what there is to be frightened of,” and attacked western press coverage: “Why should we be singled out? A lot of dark-skinned players play in Russia. I don’t see a problem.”

b) 2018 chief executive Alexei Sorokin, who said Rostov fans throwing a banana last year was a “one-off”; explained how Lokomotiv Moscow fans aiming a cartoon banana at striker Peter Odemwingie in 2010 were not being “racial ... in Russia ‘to get a banana’ means ‘to fail a test’”; and attacked fake news in 2014: “While there are individual outbreaks of undesired tendencies, it cannot be regarded as a trend.”

c) Former Russian FA head Anatoly Vorobyov, who intervened in 2014 when Rostov coach Igor Gamula linked his black players to Ebola and told the press: “We’ve got enough black players, we’ve got six of the things and you want me to sign a seventh?” Vorobyov: “It’s clear Gamula is not racist. He was being careless.”

d) Russian FA disciplinary head Artur Grigoryants, who reacted to Spartak fans’ racist abuse of Emmanuel Frimpong in 2015 by banning Frimpong for his “insulting gesture” back at them. Grigoryants defended his consistent policy of banning black players for offending racists, saying: “These so-called, in inverted commas, victims … keep losing control.”

e) And Sergei Cheban, director of Russia’s Premier League, who reflected in 2015 on difficult press after the League’s official “Miss Charming” beauty queen was outed as a neo-Nazi. “It was unlucky for Olga - she really is a charming girl.”

• The Fifa World Cup bid inspection team’s line in 2010 on Russian football’s mixed record – which included a “monkey go home” banner, a “happy holocaust” flag and a lynched toy monkey: racism is “not an operational matter”, and so “not a factor” in the process.

And elsewhere

Serbia: Jelena Polic, vice-president of FK Rada, sending a message to Partizan’s Everton Luiz via Facebook after he gestured at racist Rada fans then left the field in tears: “Why don’t you go back to Brazil and show your dark fingers to them?”

Other news: making it better

17 Feb: Figures show councils reacting to government cuts by selling off playing fields at the highest rate in seven years. 21 Feb: Tory ambassador Karren Brady opens a new 3G pitch in east London. “These grassroots facilities are so vital … this is what football is all about.”

Clarification of the week

Brazil: Second division club Marcilio Dias apologising to Chapecoense for “any offence” after vice-president Mauro Pereira implied they milked November’s air disaster. Pereira: “The Marcilio Dias plane doesn’t have to fall for us to make it big in football.” Club statement: “At no time was this intended to diminish the tragedy.”

Most seamless

Leicester’s official @lcfc account, deleting an old tweet on Thursday night: “@lcfc, 7 Feb: CLUB STATEMENT. #lcfc would like to make absolutely clear its unwavering support for Claudio Ranieri.”

• Also not wavering: Genoa president Enrico Preziosi on coach Ivan Juric. 17 Feb: “No one has unconditional trust, fans insult all of us - but I believe in Juric. We have a rapport built on esteem, on affection. He’s a great coach.” 19 Feb: Sacks him.

Best entertainer

Mexico: Club América coach Ricardo La Volpe - banned last week for tackling a defender on the touchline, then calling out Cruz Azul coach Paco Jemez: “I’m not one to talk about other managers as I respect them. But him? Smoke and mirrors. He blows smoke and they like it.”

Most got at

Peru: Cantolao midfielder Paulo Albarracín – “hurting” after his back-pass own goal went viral. “I’ve never done this before – the fault is all mine. I heard my keeper calling me so I just knocked it back to him. It turns out he wasn’t there.”

Plus: best values

Brazil: Ronaldinho, 36 – in China to launch an elite football academy based on “Barça values”; co-releasing a new rap video following his 2014 hit “I’m full of money/Let’s Drink”; and launching a line of T-shirts, slogan: “Let’s Drink – I’m single again.”