Then Vitaly Mutko began to speak.

The Russian Deputy Prime Minister, also President of the Russia 2018 Organising Committee, launched a stunning tirade during a pre-draw press conference.

Sat next to FIFA President Gianni Infantino, who looked worryingly unperturbed by Mutko’s outburst, Mutko launched an attack his country's strikers could only begin to dream of. 

The Western media, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and the continued "trampling" of Russia as a nation were his main targets during a 77-minute rant which, while certainly entertaining, bordered on lunacy.

Mutko, the self-appointed denier-in-chief in Russia, claimed "everyone is trying to make some kind of axis of evil out of us" and accused journalists of "distorting reality" when reporting on Russia’s doping scandal.

The "reality" the former Sports Minister alluded to has become that bit more real over the past few days.

As well as sanctioning Russians for alleged doping at Sochi 2014, the IOC released their reasoned decision in the case involving cross-country skier Alexander Legkov, documenting how the Oswald Commission backed the "significant" evidence provided by Grigory Rodchenkov and supported the former Moscow Laboratory director as a "reliable witness".

This is a man who Mutko and other Government officials have hung out to dry and is being blamed for everything, so much so that he fled the country in a panic and sought witness protection in the United States.

This is also a man who Mutko is alleged to have met on numerous occasions to discuss the doping programme Rodchenkov was orchestrating, according to diairies published by the New York Times earlier this week, controverting Mutko’s continuous assertions that he had no idea what was going on.

These diaries are among the evidence against Mutko beginning to stack up with every passing day. 

The 58-year-old, though, remains as convinced as ever that there is "no proof" of state-sponsored doping and the accusations are nothing more than a concerted effort from the West to discredit Russia as a nation.

"I’m happy to go to any court, to any disciplinary committee, to anyone and I’ll be happy to talk about how there has never been and will never be any state programmes related to doping in this country," Mutko said.

"We do not need to do that and we have never done it. Let's openly display all the facts.

"We are playing by the rules."

Mutko has become the perfect metaphor for the country’s woes but his performance yesterday, described by one observer as a continuation of his "stand-up comedy tour", seemed to go a step further than before.

After all, even Vladimir Putin himself has partially accepted the country has a problem with doping, admitting in March of this year Russia’s anti-doping system had "failed".

For Mutko, though, denial is the only way.

It is well known that Putin is not a football fan and is nowhere near as passionate and as invested in the World Cup as he was the 2014 Winter Olympic Games in Sochi. 

But even he would have tuned in to his Deputy’s press conference – either on television or covertly – and been dismayed by what he saw.

It probably explains why Putin is currently refusing to take Mutko's calls and the Deputy Prime Minister has to deal with him through an intermediary.

Mutko’s rant came just days before the IOC decide on the extent of Russian participation at next year’s Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang. 

The case appears to be growing for the country to be banned in some way or another, either through the exclusion of the flag and anthem or the entire team.

Mutko's diatribe in Moscow yesterday would not have helped their cause.

"We don’t know what the IOC is going to say; we hope that common sense will prevail," Mutko said.

Well, there are plenty of people who would say common sense from the IOC would not yield the desired effect in Russia.

It is not often you spare a thought for Infantino, but he too had cause to be less than pleased with his Russian counterpart on stage at the press conference.

Infantino would have hoped he would be given his chance to eulogise in detail about how great next year’s tournament will be - he got the odd phrase in but not to the extent he would have liked - but instead the show was stolen by Mutko.

This was not unexpected for Infantino. The hundreds of journalists in attendance were only ever going to ask about doping.

For Infantino and FIFA, they cannot also not escape questions about their past. 

The FIFA President was forced to field questions about the corruption scandal which has plunged the governing body into crisis and brought the organisation to its knees amid the trial of three former executives in New York City.

The trial, expected to last around six weeks, has laid bare the deep-rooted bribery which plagued the former administration and threatened to spill into this one had the United States Department of Justice not intervened. 

Not only that, but one official accused of corruption has committed suicide while another was allegedly threatened with a cut-throat gesture while on the witness stand.

The scandal itself had been part of the week-long build-up to the draw, thanks in part to the involvement of former England international and staunch FIFA critic Gary Lineker.

Lineker has been widely condemned for accepting the role of draw presenter – and presumably the hefty pay check which accompanied it - despite adopting a very public anti-FIFA stance. 

"There can't be a more corrupt, deplorable organisation on earth than FIFA. The house of cards is falling. Time for change," he Tweeted in May 2015.

He quoted this Tweet yesterday with an accompanying message which read: "I tweeted this 2.5 years ago and stand by every word. The change has happened and we now have a new regime that are desperate to change FIFA for the better, thank heavens. If they don’t I’ll be the first to come down on them. Let’s hope for the future."

This, however, was an oversight from Lineker. It has been far from calm waters since Infantino took charge of a sinking ship and the Englishman’s comments gloss over the issues which still need to be tackled.

It is only when these problems are addressed that the focus will truly be able to return to football.