Occasionally you have a week that reminds you why you fell in love with football but also why you grew to despise the way it is run.
Let’s start with the bad guys. Had Gianni Infantino not caved in to widespread revulsion at his cowardly refusal to isolate the dictator who awarded him the Russian Order of Friendship, then FIFA would have followed Vladimir Putin into global pariah status.
Forget what Infantino ended up having to do when countries told him they had no intention of playing against Russia while civilians were being shelled, and focus on what they wanted to do: Allow Putin’s mob to compete under a rebranded name while they threw out stomach-churning platitudes about FIFA’s mission to bring nations together through “The Beautiful Game.”
