As the sun set over the Atlas Mountains, and the sound of the evening call to prayer drifted across the city, all seemed calm.
At Marrakech's finest hotel, La Mamounia, famous for being Winston Churchill's favourite bolt hole, Fifa's top executives - the select few who run world football - were checking in ahead of their final meeting of the year.
Uefa president Michel Platini, looking relaxed in a garish grey and yellow tracksuit, chatted quietly to an associate as they sat in loungers on the terrace. Jordanian Prince Ali and his wife walked quietly through the manicured gardens. US football chief Sunil Gulati politely deflected questions from journalists who hung around the lobby in the vain hope of a quick word with president Sepp Blatter.
And then it happened. From far away across the Atlantic, another senior Fifa figure was checking out. And here, amid the overwhelming chaos of the Marrakech souks, world football's governing body would once again be thrown into turmoil.
The resignation of New York-based Michael Garcia - the former US attorney who led Fifa's investigation into allegations of corruption around the bidding for the next two World Cups, is another humiliation for the organisation.
Garcia did not just quit - he called into question the entire integrity, leadership and culture of Fifa. He was the organisation's lead investigator. Its ethics committee chairman. The man hired to clean up a toxic, discredited body after years of scandal.