Significant birthdays often bring together old acquaintances who have fallen out down the years. So here, tripping up the red carpet to the site of football's birth 150 years ago at the Grand Connaught Rooms, was Fabio Capello.
The last time the former England manager came face to face with the Football Association's chairman, David Bernstein, was when he was being told to resign after refusing to strip John Terry of the captaincy. Some of the money saved on Capello's contract appeared to have been spent on this lavish, made-for-television event.
And up there on the big screen was Sepp Blatter, who once told Lord Coe that English football was "run by idiots" and warned his Fifa colleagues about the "evils" of the British media, paying verbose homage to its place as the creator of the "beautiful game". His tribute was accompanied by pictures of the Fifa president embracing Bernstein at St George's Park, the new £100m national football centre.
There was no room for rancour here as football's often dysfunctional family gathered to hang out the bunting.
However, not enough water had passed under the bridge for everybody.
Although there were five England managers in attendance, Steve McClaren, Kevin Keegan and Glenn Hoddle had made their excuses.
The incumbent, Roy Hodgson, was called to the stage to strike the requisite note of false hope that has echoed down the decades: "The first thing we have to do, of course, is qualify for the tournament. Then, when we qualify, it will be important that we give a very good account of ourselves at the World Cup in Brazil and, who knows, once you are there you have a chance of winning it." The general secretary, Alex Horne, said the FA wanted "more, better English players". Don't we all?
Both on stage and on screen, a string of big names from home and abroad were offered up to pay homage to the birthplace of association football. Arsène Wenger said that its place as the home of the game was too rarely acknowledged: "Football is my love affair and England created football. It's a good opportunity to thank England for that. I feel that football in the world forgets that."
The event had kicked off with a romp through England's footballing history in 150 seconds, ably narrated by Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, featuring a succession of mis-steps and heartaches (the failure to send a team to the first World Cup, a series of penalty shootout defeats) alongside the rare triumphs.
José Mourinho (sending his message from what looked like a Bond villain's underground lair) and Pep Guardiola talked of the passion and excitement of the English game. The latter said that he would like to coach in England one day, forgetting to add that he planned to head to Germany first.
The FA's aim was to use the starry event – which also featured the 1966 heroes Sir Bobby Charlton, George Cohen and Martin Peters plus obligatory contributions from Prince William and David Beckham – to highlight its wider work.
Those present were left in no doubt as to the "key messages": the FA is not for profit, distributes £100m a year and acts as the glue that holds together seven million players, 27,000 referees, 300,000 coaches and 400,000 volunteers at all levels of the game, from Hackney Marshes where Beckham first played for Ridgeway Rovers to the Wembley turf that will host the 2013 Champions League final.
The FA's commitment to women's football and disabled football was highlighted by the presence of Faye White and Dave Clarke. A National Football Day will support the Sir Bobby Robson Foundation and a long overdue attempt will be made to shine a spotlight on the FA's role at the grass roots.
"What I hope to get from today is a real perception in the wider football world what the FA does, what the FA really is," said Bernstein. "I don't think the FA has had a fair deal.
"There is such an emphasis on the high-profile issues – disciplinary things and so on. Today you have heard from so many people of the great work the FA does, the grass-roots work it does. It is a fantastic organisation."
The point of this sugary sweet, extremely slick 80-minute love-in was to underline the FA's position at the heart of the game. And, given the kicking it normally gets from all sides (not always deserved), it is probably entitled to it. The rest of us had better get used to it – there are 10 long months until the anniversary itself, marking the first meeting to codify the laws of the game.
By then Bernstein will have departed Wembley having been forced out by his own council. It is hard to know what Ebenezer Cobb Morley, the FA's first secretary, would have made of it all – the telephone-number salaries of the players might have been alien but there is much about the modern FA that he would recognise. After all, that first meeting was also infused with passionate argument and marked by violent disagreement over the future direction of the game.