It’s just one day, one damn day. But the signal that FIFA is sending out is fatal. In order to give the world stage exclusively to the high lords from Qatar, the world governing body is buckling. It doesn’t matter for the tournament. For the credibility of the officials, it’s the next nail in the coffin.

FIFA doesn’t care about anything anyway. So why not just postpone the World Cup. Well, it’s only a matter of one day. Now the tournament will start on November 20, on the Sunday of the dead. And not just the day after, with the opening match between the Netherlands and Senegal and the opening match between Ecuador and Qatar much later in the day. Also somehow a great punchline of this controversial major event. And the next absurdity on a long list that started with the choice of the venue, continued with the timing (winter) and now ends with the postponement for the time being. By the way, it is completely unclear why the original schedule did not include a real opening match at all.

Of course, one can now also say: artificial indignation, who works off emotionally on something like that. But this one day is not the issue. World Cup host Qatar apparently wants not only to welcome the world with open arms (little joke), but also to block the first day of the tournament exclusively for itself. This means that the opening match will be played without international competition. As has been the case at the world tournament since 2006. But this year should not be the case. Until the sudden desire to do so arises, at least for outsiders.

The world federation is happy to comply with this wish. 100 days before the start of the tournament. Unfortunately, this is not a surprise. After all, President Gianni Infantino not only likes to cuddle up with the high and rich gentlemen from the Emirate, but has also moved his residence there directly. That is a sign. But not in the way one would wish. The Swiss is now not the first guardian on the construction sites in Qatar and strict guardian of human rights and freedoms. Infantino is in Qatar and loves life. However, this decision has not been made easy. They say. The decision was preceded by “an analysis of the sporting and operational implications, as well as extensive consultation and agreement with key stakeholders and the host country.” Well.

Infantino squad finally exposed

It is indeed a banality whether the tournament takes place on Sunday or Monday. And it is also terribly irrelevant whether the first match of the desert World Cup is Qatar against Ecuador or Senegal against the Netherlands. For the good – or rather the bad – of this tournament, the scheduling has no significance whatsoever. But there is also a brutality in this banality. It is the eternally shocking fact that powerful associations like FIFA allow despots or unjust states to dictate everything to them.

True, the world governing body is selling the decision as a bonbon, an even greater spectacle for fans (issues such as early travel, TV coverage and the like are sovereignly ignored in this bliss). A whitewash that no one seems to have longed for. But what should FIFA say? Sorry, the pressure from Qatar was so great that we couldn’t help it? There is no need to give an answer to that. It gives itself. According to “The Athletic”, this pressure actually existed. Whoever still had any doubts about the Infantino squad’s instability of values and morals should now have completely dispelled them.

Just one damn day

What would have happened if the federation had insisted on its decision of seven years ago? Qatar would not have voluntarily given away the World Cup. But although international soccer has been fatally dependent on Qatari wealth for years, there would certainly have been possibilities for sanctions or withdrawal in this field. But you don’t want to alienate good friends. And the major sports associations now have them almost exclusively in the unjust states and under the great despots of the present.

Their ignorance of human rights, environmental protection, and sustainability, their idle talk about humility and against gigantism, and the tales of corruption they tell over and over again have made the officials undesirables in most democracies. That the struggle for credibility, for trust, is too exhausting for them and they prefer to take the path of least resistance (or greatest convenience) is now reflected in the postponement of the Desert World Cup. Even if it’s just one damn day. It’s the damn day Qatar gets the world stage to itself and will show how great things have turned out in the desert state. It’s the day FIFA smiles with satisfaction. As its president Joseph Blatter once did at the award ceremony. It was the ugliest smile in recent soccer history.