London does sweaty sporting weekends well. The latest running of the Boat Race on the River Thames around Putney, a Super 15 match between the Crusaders of Canterbury and the Natal Sharks in rugby union at Twickenham and a football friendly between Brazil and Scotland at the Emirates Stadium were all staged in the UK's capital over a succulent little weekend.
Amid all this mayhem, there was even room for a spot of rioting in the city centre as anarchists predictably clamped themselves to the TUC march protesting against spending cuts and tax increases.
There was a time when Scotland fans would have got themselves involved in the revolting in London with some relish, or at least got caught up somewhere in the organised chaos. To misquote the words of the country's national anthem Flower of Scotland, those days are gone now.
Scotland fans once specialised in drunken behaviour, peeing on some flowerbeds and vanadlising monuments, but such an approach disappeared into the ether in the death throes of the 1970s. The modern Scottish football fan in London is only here for the beer.
Nowadays, Scotland fans tend be, at the very worst, drunk and orderly. Rather than bringing down the bar - the one on the pitch of the old Wembley Stadium - the invading Tartan Army, a glorious and often frazzled group of comrades who keep alive the spirit of the Sound of Music, tend to bring down the house wherever they wash up.
It was pleasant to drink in the atmosphere of the Oxbridge boat race with the usual array of Hooray Henrys and Henriettas on the Thames on Saturday and fraternise with a few of the Kiwis and Springboks heading for the rugby, but there remains few gatherings of supporters who project vitality as much as Scotland fans on their travels.
They are perhaps not puritanical in their trips away, but Scotland followers are good-natured and prone to embrace the chance of merrymaking. A lot of bars and clubs in Glasgow could learn a lesson from London watering holes in how to treat these terrific footsoldiers when they head for a few spritzers after an international fixture.
The match against Brazil was all too predictable, but there is enough within the Scotland squad to suggest palish men in kilts could yet hit Rio for the World Cup finals in 2014.
Brazil are probably not as good as they think they are, but they had more than enough to take care of Scotland. They won the match with as much ease as Oxford won the Boat Race. The much-vaunted forward Neymar (pictured above left, with Alan Hutton, right) stuffed the net twice to consign Scotland to their traditional role as gallant losers. It was the stuff afterwards that perplexed this onlooker.
Like most followers of the Scotland national side, one was flabbergasted when Neymar, 19 and as expressive in speech as his play, suggested he was racially abused by the travelling fans. It was an astonishing claim, centred around a general jeering towards his constant diving and a banana being tossed from the Brazilian section of the ground. The evidence was as flimsy as Neymar's build.
One remembers interviewing the late former Scotland assistant manager Tommy Burns a few years back. Tommy told me back then that what Scotland had was a group of honest triers, who give of their best. The same could be said of the fans. To describe the Scotland support as racist is comparable to saying that one of the old school tie brigade at the Boat Race will be soon be off to do a shift down the pit.
Thankfully, truth will out. A sort of justice has been done by the revelation that it was a German teenager stationed among the Brazil fans who tossed the banana. Scotland fans would hardly have time to stop off at the fruit mongers to pick up a banana. They would probably see it as a waste of good drinking time.
The German teenager has been cleared of any racist intent by the Metropolitan Police, but the Brazilian teenager on the pitch is not the innocent party in these shenanigans. The problem about Neymar's outburst is that mud tends to stick. In such a situation, insinuation is as regrettable as false accusation.
Unlike some hotspots of Eastern Europe, Scottish and British football has thankfully passed the days of the banana-throwing. One remembers bananas being thrown when players such as Mark Walters and Paul Elliott were subjected to monkey noises at various Scottish football outposts. A banana or three aimed at the former Rangers winger Walters from the old Celtic Park in the 1980s was famously described by the broadcaster Archie MacPherson as "an assortment of fruit".
Neymar seems to have more than a touch of the Mario Balotelli about him. Balotelli, a figure who suffered racist abuse in Italy, is an exceptional talent, but finds time to throw darts at a member of Manchester City's youth team. Neymar scores twice and torments Scotland, but finds time to accuse fans of racism. His £20 million or more asking price already comes with a warning sign.
To an interested Premier League club in England, Neymar may prove to be more trouble than he is worth. If he is going to cite racism for fans jeering over his diving, then he could be a busy boy complaining if he moves from his native Brazil to Chelsea or Manchester City.
English fans are unlikely to welcome Neymar's diving any more than Scotland supporters. He is a wonderful player, but class must extend beyond merely playing.
Now he has got it so badly wrong, he should apologise for opening his mouth before thinking what he was saying. His outburst has been proven to be cheap, shabby and a slight on those 40,000 Scotland supporters who contributed marvellously to a joyous sporting weekend in London.