FIFA World Cup 2022: Football tournament will start a day before in Qatar, FIFA announced
The Football World Cup to be held in Qatar this year will start from November 20.
A major change has been made in the schedule of FIFA World Cup 2022. The Football World Cup to be held in Qatar this year will start from November 20. Earlier this tournament was to be played from November 21, but FIFA has decided to start it from a day before. According to the old schedule, the first match was to be played between Netherlands and Senegal, but now according to the new schedule, the first match will be played between hosts Qatar and Ecuador.
Changes made to keep the old tradition
According to the earlier schedule, this Group A match between Qatar and Ecuador was the third match of the tournament. Actually, according to tradition, in the first match of the FIFA World Cup, the host team or the champion team of the last time plays. In such a situation, now this tradition has been maintained by changing the schedule. The final decision regarding this was given by the Bureau of the FIFA Council. It includes six confederation presidents and FIFA president Gianni Infantino.
FIFA gave the information
FIFA said- 'This change in the schedule is to maintain the old tradition. Under the new schedule, the Group A match between Senegal and the Netherlands has been shifted from 1 pm (1000 GMT) to 7 pm on 21 November. There has been no change in the opening match of England's Group B against Iran. Qatar's organizers, who spent billions of dollars in preparation for the event, immediately welcomed FIFA's decision.
Ecuadorian fans may be disappointed by the change in schedule
Some Ecuadorian fans may have to change flights to reach Qatar earlier, and football sources said the date change could change some World Cup contracts. However, several companies associated with the World Cup expressed confidence that the disruption would be over. Match Hospitality chairman Jaime Byrom said: 'This is something we will deal with.'