FIFA's poppy ban on England vs Scotland is the height of political hypocrisy

The world football governing body had a chance to show compassion, empathy and respect. Instead it's just being obtuse and petty

When England line-up against Scotland on Friday, roughly 90,000 fans will hold a minute's silence inside Wembley. The two British nations have a fierce rivalry but everyone will fall quiet for 60 seconds to commemorate Armistice Day. No one will deny the value of showing respect for those who died fighting for their country in the past century and the end of the First World War.

No one at the World Cup 2018 qualifier, perhaps, except FIFA's representative, who will be noting the poppy-wearing rebellion for future sanctions. For FIFA has taken an exceptionally dim view of the situation and, as a result, escalated the charitable gesture into an absurd political stand-off.

In the red corner, you have both the English and Scottish FAs insisting they will defy FIFA's refusal to allow players of both teams to wear poppies on black armbands. It's a “point of principle”, English FA chief executive Martin Glenn said, and the UK Prime Minister Theresa May charged into the fray by calling FIFA's stance “utterly outrageous”.

In the blue corner, you have Fatma Samoura, FIFA's general secretary, insisting the teams “should be ready to face any kind of sanction” and warning “Britain is not the only country that has been suffering as a result of war”.

This bizarre political bout would never have happened if FIFA hadn't tried to do what it loves to do when it's not preoccupied with sweeping rampant corruption claims under the carpet: meddle.

In the UK, as in many other European countries, poppies are now synonymous with commemorating those who died at war. In 2009, a media campaign in the UK successfully encouraged football clubs to better pay their respects around Armistice Day. In late October/early November, it's impossible not to see bright red poppy imitations on everyone in the Premier League from players to pundits, mascots to managers.

It's possible to link poppies to the British empire and all that baggage has the potential to upset those who have fought against it – for sovereignty, territory disputes or in full scale warfare. If England wore poppies against Argentina it would be incomprehensively stupid – but that's not what they're doing.

England and Scotland share the day-to-day dislike that most neighbouring countries do, but they have fought and died side-by-side in numerous wars over the past 100 years. Brexit and a failed Scottish independence referendum have deeply divided the island, but they've fought for centuries together in a single army.

FIFA's not legitimately concerned about the expression of politics in football. They allow national anthems that are jam-packed with propaganda: “God save the Queen” sing Brits; “land of the free” sing Americans; “our free Motherland” sing Russians; “Germany above all else in the world” sing the Germans.

Wealthy countries pour money into sports as a modern display of patriotic dominance, as the Summer Olympic Games illustrates every four years. In 18 months, FIFA's taking its World Cup to Russia – a country with shocking democratic, race, equality and freedom of speech abuses.

FIFA doesn't have a problem taking the World Cup to Russia but it draws the line at armbands with flowers on? The hypocrisy is hideous. The truth is FIFA allows politicking when it suits and draws arbitrary lines when it doesn't.

They'll fear it's a slippery slope if they allow one rule to be broken. But why not make exceptions? Won't that earn back some of the good will destroyed by decades of endemic corruption within FIFA?

Isn't it the sensible thing to do to allow for exceptional circumstances when two countries want to unite with a harmless, humanitarian gesture?

Poppies are only political propaganda when they're being forced down the throat of those who don't want to wear them. That's not what is happening for England's match against Scotland. For those in attendance poppies will be a way of showing tenderness for those who gave their lives for the UK, a way to remember family and friends lost to war, a way to grieve with dignity.

Wearing a poppy at Wembley shows compassion, empathy and respect – three virtues FIFA should be encouraging in football rather than trying to stifle. That's why the 90,000 fans bitterly divided by a border will put aside their differences for 60 silent seconds, and it's shameful that FIFA is too blind to recognise the benefit of it.