As recent stances on matters of principle by Australia’s netballers and Test cricket captain Pat Cummins demonstrate, the mute complicity of sportspeople is not as easily bought as it once was, not as easily bought as some governing bodies.

Some recent whitewashing - easing draconian labour laws, for instance - have assuaged few. Everything is a shade of white here anyway.

FIFA’s response was classically hypocritical. One day, president Gianni Infantino was holding up the World Cup as an event that can unite the world and urging for it to be the pretext for a ceasefire in Ukraine and the opening up of humanitarians channels there. Yet days before, he had written to all competing countries to them “not [to] allow football to be dragged into every ideological or political battle that exists”. In other words, mention only the war.

Oddly enough, Qatar as host and Australia as guest have the same mission: to win over sceptics. That the Socceroos are in the finals for the fifth time in a row is sincerely its own achievement, hailing as they do from a country so divided in its affections between football codes. Italy is not here, nor is Colombia or Peru, to name but some who fell by the wayside. For once, Australia is not the lowest ranked team here.

But this is the least-hailed and lowest-profile iteration of the Socceroos at the World Cup. In 2006, near the end of the so-called “golden generation”, at least 10 Socceroos played in major leagues. In this squad, the only player on the books of an English Premier League club is the startling teenager Garang Kuol, who has not yet played a full match in the A-League Men.

If Kuol is not already the face of the Socceroos, it is reserve goalkeeper Andrew Redmayne and his instantly legendary - and effective - grey Wiggle antics in the penalty shootout against Peru that finally secured Australia’s World Cup berth.

The Socceroos’ collective street value is guesstimated at $60 million. In their opening match against reigning champions France, they will come up against one player, Kylian Mbappe, who is priced at around five times as much.

Yet it is a rich squad in its own way. It features three with south Sudanese heritage - including Kuol - but also seven who were born or play in Scotland and nine in all who were born outside Australia. As per modern Australia’s demographics, they’re gathered from all over. Their motif in this campaign is “Many Journeys, One Jersey”.

The Socceroos can’t win the World Cup, but Qatar can win the world. They will hope that, as in so many previous World Cups and Olympic Games, the tournament will do the wooing.

But they’re also dispersed, playing for clubs in 11 countries. This is the eternal lot of the second-tier nation. It is the current lot of coach Graham Arnold. The last thing he needs now is the first he has got: an injury cloud over striker Martin Boyle.

Other countries are also struggling on this front. This World Cup is misplaced if for no other reason than it is out of time. To avoid the worst of the gulf country’s shimmering summer heat, instead of being played between big league seasons, it is dividing one.

Usually, clubs cross their fingers against injuries to their expensive stars at the World Cup. This time, the managers of countries were wincing at every heavy tackle in club games before the World Cup hiatus began. Outside the refrigerated stadia, it will be formidably hot anyway, constraining preparations. Heat and injury may yet prove decisive.

The Socceroos can’t win the World Cup, but Qatar can win the world. They will hope that, as in so many previous World Cups and Olympic Games, the tournament will do the wooing. It usually does. It’s the spell that sport casts, for better or worse.

Qatar is a fiefdom, Muslim and conservative and no one should expect Mardi Gras. That became even more apparent on Friday when it suddenly banned alcohol from stadia. But it is far from despotic. It asks only of the incoming world an open mind and heart.

As a million visitors begin to fill up the arrivals hall at Hamad International Airport (itself a World Cup project), and clap eyes for the first time on the spectacularly elegant lines of the new stadia, Qatar certainly makes a gleaming first impression.

But even while beholding it, it’s hard not to dwell on the human toll. Australian fans this week embarked from a country that celebrated basketballer Isaac Humphries for announcing himself as gay, and disembarked in a country where he would run the risk of jail for it.