The atmosphere felt more like a family-friendly Olympic Games than the feverish nationalism and tension you associate with football. Green and gold fans marched side-by-side with Les Bleus, exchanging insults and camaraderie, but there seemed no danger of it escalating beyond that.

Security was tight entering the stadium, and my trusty green pen was confiscated, but it was low key after that and there were no attempts to split-up fans of different nationalities. Nor was there any need to.

This is not to say the Aussie fans were not getting irate about some of the decisions and the chant of "Bulls***, bulls***" was amusing the person next to me who was attending his first football match. My favourite chant was the "Harry Potter, he's coming for you" aimed not at a French player, but at Australia's very own Aaron Mooy, who bears an uncanny resemblance to Lord Voldemort.

The clash between England and Tunisia in Volgograd tonight may provide a better test for security and inter-fan camaraderie, but first impressions have been good. 

Aside from a few protests which seem to have had the intention of ending in arrest, the atmosphere on Red Square in Moscow has also been vibrant yet harmonious. Fans from Egypt and Latin America - Peru especially - stood out the most by far. Off the pitch at least, Europe has some catching up to do.

I remember being similarly impressed by the organisation and good-natured vibe at the Winter Olympics in Sochi, despite the concerns beforehand. 

Given what we now know was happening there behind the scenes, I am reluctant to praise Russia too much this time around, but it is going well so far. It is important to differentiate between the Russian State and the normal people, who are usually delightful.

The best act of random kindness I have experienced so far came in a supermarket when trying to buy lunch. The cashier did not speak a word of English but refused point blank to scan the butter which I was attempting to buy along with bread and meat. 

After a chorus of "nyets", she eventually frogmarched me back to the aisle and swapped the cooking margarine I had inadvertently chosen for proper butter. I don't think many shopping attendants in the western world would show that concern.

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I am also in Russia to speak at a Volunteer Leaders Academy organised by the International University Sports Federation (FISU) and attended by students from 92 different countries. It is taking place in a youth camp in a beautiful village on the banks of the River Volga, a 30 minute drive from Kazan, where all houses are lavish and protected by large gates and security. I am told this is because most are summer dachas owned by Russian politicians and businessmen.

I was asked to present about how aspiring sports administrators should and should not work with the media and, yes, I did mention last week's International Olympic Committee (IOC) statement on Sion 2026's referendum defeat as an example of the latter.

This was something new for me, but it was a lot of fun. I was asked about mistakes I have made, ways we go about researching and confirming stories and whether we have been threatened and bullied into not writing a particular story. Many, find a good seat in the bar and occasionally being the respective answers here. 

They all then came up with a press statement in response to a "crisis", which was that the diving pool had turned green moments before the start of an Olympic competition.

A good argument broke out over whether they should "play it straight" and simply apologise and delay the event until they were absolutely sure it was safe, or whether they should "spin" and insist the competition should go ahead, even if safety was not guaranteed, in order to minimise disruption.

One group took an unorthodox approach and decided to use humour.

"The EIA (Environmental Agency) have given us the green light," was their first response.

"The water quality has taken a real dive…the atmosphere has declined, you can literally hear a pin drop…the lane swimmers are green with envy with the water colour change," were others.

This may seem a terrible answer and my instinctive reaction was that indeed it was. Then again, the actual answer of Rio 2016 communication director Mario Andrada when this happened was that "chemistry is not an exact science" and it struck a chord.

Can humour, obviously balanced with facts and contrition, sometimes be a good response?

Could this even be something the IOC could adopt to end their run of referendum defeats when attention switches to Calgary later this year?

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Speaking of excuses, I still cannot get my head around quite why Brazil voted against the Canada-United States-Mexico bid they had previously supported for the 2026 FIFA World Cup last week. It didn't really matter in the end, because Morocco were well beaten, but the explanation offered by Brazilian Football Confederation head Antonio Carlos Nunes only added to the confusion.

According to O'Globo, Nunes told journalists that his vote was secret and he would tell them who he backed, before they informed him it was, in fact, not, and they already knew.

"The United States and Mexico have already made Cup, right?" he then added. "It would be nice if it were Morocco."

Hmm. 

It got me thinking about other good excuses in sport. 

Our host nation here have given us a few.

Investigations into possible corruption surrounding the 2018 World Cup bidding process were impeded when the Russians were unable to cooperate and provide correspondence because the rented laptops they had used had subsequently been "destroyed".

Former Sports Minister and current Deputy Prime Minister Vitaly Mutko improved on that one when explaining how two members of the women's ice hockey team at Sochi 2014 had somehow submitted male DNA in their urine samples - the inference being, it was not actually their DNA…

"If a woman has sex with a man, and then have a doping control within five days, then it will appear [as] male hormones, and it will arouse suspicion in various doping tests," he said.

Athletes are also not immune to excuses.

Irish footballer Stephen Ireland famously skipped an international match in 2007 because his grandmother had died. Problem was, she hadn't and was no doubt bemused to read reports of her own demise in the media. Nor had his other grandmother, who Ireland then attempted to cite before the lie was rumbled.

Ireland's real reason, it transpired, was because his girlfriend had a miscarriage, which would have been a good enough reason anyway on compassionate grounds…

In Rio, there was a fantastic row between Ingrid Oliveira and Giovanna Pedrosa, the two members of Brazil's 10 metres synchronised platform diving team. Seventeen-year-old Pedrosa complained that, the night before the two finished last together in a performance described as "pathetic" by local media, Oliveira had kicked her out of their shared room to enjoy what every report gleefully described as a "marathon sex session" with canoeist Pedro Goncalves.

This one was probably true, as anyone who has shared a room at university can testify.

Of course, the other possibility with Nunes is that he actually had some sort of underhand incentive for switching to Morocco. There is no suggestion or evidence of this so far, but it would be remiss not to consider it given what we know about sporting bidding races in recent years.

For the time being, however, nothing unsavoury has surfaced at Russia 2018 and there is no need for crisis communications strategies, humorous or not.

Let's hope this lasts but also that Russia 2018, unlike the Sochi Olympics, is not tainted posthumously by revelations that emerge after the event.