Opinion | Fifa World Cup 2018 opening ceremony: Vladimir Putin puts on a shameful party for himself in Russia
Tournament in Russia is normalising the behaviour of an autocrat while the world watches on and cheers
It didn’t take long, just 12 minutes to be precise, for the World Cup to descend into farce.
I’m not talking about Robbie Williams’ kick-off concert before the opening game at Luzhniki Stadium in Moscow, though that was toe-curling enough.
I’m referring to the image beamed around the world to millions, of Fifa president Gianni Infantino and Vladimir Putin shrugging their shoulders and sticking their hands out, in a mock apologetic gesture, to Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman Al Saud, after Yury Gazinsky scored the first goal of the 2018 World Cup for Russia against Saudi Arabia.
It looked cringingly rehearsed – television cameras normalising two men accused of human rights abuses as just a couple of lads bantering about a football match, with the head of world football’s governing body playing along. Pass the sick bag.
Fifa gladly gave Vlad the Lad his wish, a world stage to show off Russia and pretend it isn’t an autocratic regime where anti-Putin critics are jailed and murdered, where boots are put to the throat of democracy as the president awards himself a fifth term in a sham election.
“Love for football unites the entire world in one team, regardless of people’s language or ideology,” Putin said to thunderous applause from the capacity crowd.