All these, in each sport, are typical means by which competitors acknowledge fellow competitors after their work is done.

Often it is no more than politeness. Indeed, when you look at the expressions of some of the women embracing it can appear almost a gesture of disdain and dismissal.

But at the other end of the spectrum such interaction can be an expression of deep respect. It can be something transcendent.

In football, after games of high importance, the traditional mode of indicating respect for one’s opponent is the swapping of shirts.

As we have seen this week, such transactions can turn out to be insanely lucrative. Steve Hodge did many good things on a football pitch for Nottingham Forest, Aston Villa, Spurs and England. But he can hardly have made a better move than asking Diego Maradona for his shirt after Argentina’s 2-1 win in the 1986 FIFA World Cup quarter-final staged at Mexico’s Azteca Stadium.

While Maradona would go on to guide his country to their second World Cup triumph in the space of eight years, it was this match, won by his "Hand of God" and "Oh My God" goals, that became an iconic expression of his character and talent.

Which explained why the shirt went for a record breaking £7.1 million ($8.9 million/€8.4 million). That’s some lose bonus.

As my colleague Philip Barker has pointed out recently, it is 20 years since the jersey worn by Pelé in the same Azteca Stadium, during the 1970 FIFA World Cup final, was auctioned for only £157,750 ($196,000/€187,000).

So much for sporting inflation.

The football ritual of swapping shirts is believed to have been established in 1931, when France beat England for the first time. The French players, full of joie de vivre, asked the English players if they could have their jerseys as keepsakes. The answer was: Oui.

According to FIFA.com shirt exchanges at the World Cup first occurred in 1954. Sixteen years later a swapping of shirts occurred, unusually, after a group match. But as this match was between the World Cup holders, England, and the team that would go on to win the Cup in Mexico, Brazil, it was a major minor match. And as the swap occurred between Bobby Moore and Pele, respectively the world’s best defender and attacker, it held supreme significance.

The picture of the two men, grinning, exhausted, exchanging their sweat-sodden national jerseys has become an iconic image. It is an image of the finest things in sport - excellence, competitiveness, sportsmanship, respect. It’s beautiful.

After Moore died in 1993, Pele commented: "He was my friend as well as the greatest defender I ever played against. The shirt he wore against me in that 1970 match is my prize possession. The world has lost one of its greatest football players and an honourable gentleman."

Four years earlier, after a historically acrimonious World Cup quarter-final at Wembley in which England beat an Argentina team minus its sent-off captain Antonio Rattin 1-0 after extra time, the home manager Sir Alf Ramsey was pictured preventing an exchange of shirts between his full-back George Cohen and Argentina’s Alberto Gonzalez.

Sir Alf is often said to have described the Argentina team that day as "animals." Not quite. What he actually said after that match was: "It seemed a pity so much Argentinian talent is wasted. Our best football will come against the right type of opposition - a team who come to play football, and not act as animals."

It was still true to say, however, that Ramsey didn’t miss his vocation in the Diplomatic Service.  

Officials at Oldham Athletic, then in the third tier English Football League One, sought to go down the Ramsey route before their home FA Cup fifth round match against Premier League Everton in February 2013.

A notice was pinned up in the dressing room telling players not to swap shirts with their Everton counterparts for fear the club would not have enough left for their next game, against Stevenage, the following Tuesday.

After earning a 2-2 draw and a replay at Goodison Park, the players - who had beaten Liverpool 3-2 in the previous round, defied the ban.

Sometimes, at the final whistle, relatively lower status players will seek out stars from the opposition. Sometimes, as occurred after the England v Brazil match, majestic equals approach each other.

But what are the sporting etiquettes around gatherings of sporting top-dogs from different sports?

Just imagine, for instance, that there should be a social meeting involving seven-times Formula One champion driver Sir Lewis Hamilton, basketball legend Michael Jordan, former Manchester United, Real Madrid and England footballer David Beckham, one half of Posh and Becks, and American footballer Tom Brady, whom many regard as the greatest quarterback to have played the game.

Well there was. Yesterday. At the Miami F1 Grand Prix.

How often have high-performing sporting champions insisted when meeting each other that the other was the one to be venerated? We’ve heard it so many times. So who was top dog in that line-up?

No shirt-swapping on this occasion. The whole delicate social problem was swiftly solved - by a group selfie.