It is a big surprise for football fans around the world. Yes, FIFA, the organizers of the World Cup has given its nod for the tournament in Qatar to start a day earlier than scheduled.
While this will definitely disturb the already set calendar which was bound to start on Monday Nov 21, the tournament will now start on Sunday, November 20.
The reason given by FIFA’s organizing body is that Qatar wanted to start a day earlier to be the host nation that has kept to the new tradition of kicking the tournament off against their opponent, Ecuador.
Based on the approved calendar before the sudden change, Qatar was to make its World Cup debut in the third game of the competition.
The tournament is being held in November, which is the winter period in Qatar and on that Sunday, Qatar will face Ecuador after the opening ceremony to a global audience at the 60,000-capacity Al Bayt Stadium, which is very unusual.
It is a late switch but it was agreed by a Fifa committee on Thursday night, says multiple media reports.
The AFP was the first to hint at the possible earlier start to the tournament. In an article on Thursday, the French news agency said the World Cup will be brought forward by a day to allow hosts Qatar to play the opening game.
A decision made only three months before the competition gets going is not only surprising. Like we said above, it will also cause a reshuffle of the matches.
While Qatar will make its WC debut on Sunday, the first match was to be played between Senegal vs Holland on Monday November 21.
It was to be followed by the second game between England vs Iran.
According to the Sun, Fifa President Gianni Infantino and the leaders of the six continental governing bodies voted unanimously to change the date.
The fact is the World Cup hosts have been the teams that played the opening games since 2006. This tradition repeats in 2022 with the change.
Note that the English Premier League has also agreed to take a break, a very unusual and unique situation in the history of football.
The EPL will be off from November 12/13 until Boxing Day, in December. This has been decided to allow the players from the EPL to rest before the league resumes.