THE PANTOMIME season opened early yesterday, when Scotland played a phantom World Cup tie against nobody. Estonia should have been there, but, like some footballing Nessie, failed to appear as several hundred observers waited in anticipation on the steps of the correct Kadriorg Stadium.

FIFA, the world governing body, had ordered the kick-off of the Group Four qualifier to be brought forward from the scheduled 6.45 p.m. to 3 p.m.. to ensure daylight at a stadium where the floodlights proved to be very low grade.

The Scots led by Jim Farry, the Scottish Football Associations chief executive ensured that his team followed FIFA instructions to the letter, despite an attempt at mild sabotage by his Estonian rivals. The team bus failed to appear at the Scots' hotel on time, and the transport waiting to carry the association officials' was commandeered to take the players to the ground by 1 p.m., two hours ahead of kick-off.

The farce had begun on Tuesday afternoon, when Craig Brown, the Scottish team manager, alerted pressmen to the possibility of controversy by insisting that the lights were not up to standard. Brown said they would call it to the attention of the FIFA commissioner. Jean-Marie Gantenbein of Luxembourg, but would go along with whatever he decided.

At a meeting at the ground at 8 p.m. on Tuesday, the lights were tested. Gantenbein used the light-meter test and said that they were generally all right, but that he was unsure about certain parts of the field.

There was particular concern about temporary lamps which had just been installed in an effort to upgrade the floodlighting. These appeared to bring low-level glare to one of the goal areas, a possible hazard for the goalkeepers. At that stage, Einar Leppanen, the Estonian FA secretary, said that the lighting was the same for both sides, but if FlFA decreed an earlier start. they would comply.

Gantenbein said eventually that the game would take place as scheduled and Farry said that they would go ahead, but under protest. At a meeting of the SFA's international committee in the Olympia Hotel in Tallinn later that night, it was agreed to register their unease with FIFA by fax.

A copy of this communication which was completed at 2.30 a.m. was slipped under the bedroom door of the match referee Miroslav Radoman of Yugoslavia, and of Gantenbein, both men staying at the same hotel.

Early yesterday morning, Gantenbein, having spent a sleepless night agonising over the issue, contacted his superiors at FIFA headquarters in Zurich. By 9 a.m. Estonia time - one hour ahead of central Europe - Farry had received a fax from FIFA saying that a decision had been taken by their emergency subcommittee that the kick-off would be 3 p.m. and emphasised that the decision was final.

At a security meeting at the Kadriorg Stadium one hour later attended by Farry and other Scottish officials as well as Estonian counterparts and Gantenbein - all parties had with them their copies of the FlFA fax the commissioner informed everyone that the lighting standard would not meet the FIFA minimum and that the game would have the afternoon start.

Soon after, the Estonian FA issued a statement that it was not possible to comply. because some of their part-time players and all of their supporters were at work. Later. they claimed that their team were in their training camp at Kethna, 100 kilometres away.

The Scottish team were in the stadium by 1 p.m.. two hours ahead of kick-off, by which time Aiver Pohlak the Estonian FA vice-president, had said: "We told FIFA this morning that we could not move from the original time. They were asking us to be at the stadium at a time when we had scheduled our players' lunch." Later. Pohlak added: "We will leave our training camp at 4 p.m. and travel to the stadium. We know Scotland will have been and gone and there will be no match today."

The "match" lasted approximately one second. That was how long it took Billy Dodds, the Aberdeen striker, to pass the ball to his captain, John Collins, whose first touch brought the final whistle from Radoman.

It has not yet been decided how the points or score from the "match" will be allocated - FIFA will decide in the next week or so - but on precedent, it seems likely that Scotland will be awarded a 3-0 victory. If the Estonians are thrown out of the group. the other teams Sweden. Austria, Belarus and Latvia - will have similar "victories" credited to their records.

The same situation arose once before. when the USSR refused to play Chile in Santiago in a World Cup tie on political grounds. The Chileans went through the same ritual as the Scots and were awarded the tie.