In 1973, US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger was rewarded for allegedly stopping a war (not quite it turned out) he had done sterling work to prolong when he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.
The award prompted the celebrated satirical songwriter Tom Lehrer to immediately announce his retirement on the compelling grounds that satire could no longer top reality.
Kissinger's Vietnamese counterpart Le Duc Tho was also awarded the Nobel Prize that year but chose not to accept it. His reasoning for this decision was rock solid - namely, that the war was still on.
Well, Vladimir Putin has proposed a new candidate for the Nobel Prize - one who almost succeeds in making Henry Kissinger look like a worthy recipient.
In stark contrast to the sore Americans, Putin has expressed his full solidarity with Sepp Blatter in recent months.
Not only does Putin not believe of a word of the corruption claims, he suggests that the international community should in fact bestow Blatter with one of their finest honours.
Back in July he said;
I think people like Mr Blatter or the heads of big international sporting federations, or the Olympic Games, deserve special recognition. If there is anyone who deserves the Nobel Prize, it's those people.
The way there is this fight against corrpution makes me wonder if it isn't a continuation of the bids for 2018 and 2022.
At the time, we weren't sure which of the Nobel disciplines Putin was speaking about. The committee have not got around to recognising services to sporting administration.
If Blatter does deserve to be recognised by the Nobel committee, it should be on account of his tireless fight against the scourge of pantyhose.
Yesterday, he suggested Blatter, who is currently under investigation by the FIFA ethics committee (a more energetic body than they used to be), should win the Nobel Peace Prize.
He has always tried to treat football not as a sport but as an element of cooperation between countries and peoples. He is the one who must be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.
Blatter recently gave a recklessly revealing interview to the Russian state news agency TASS in which he tore strips off Michel Platini and described the Brits as sore losers.
This being an interview with the news organ of the Russian state, the interviewer was in complete harmony with Blatter on the central points.
Blatter's tongue was clearly loosened by his sycophantic interviewer.
