GENEVA (AP) – FIFA has officially pushed back the start of the World Cup by a day to give host nation Qatar an exclusive Sunday night slot with a global audience.
Qatar will now play Ecuador in Doha on November 20 – just 101 days after FIFA’s decision on Thursday – extending the World Cup to 29 days from the 28 agreed seven years ago, when a June- July was postponed to avoid the intense midsummer heat of the desert.
The surprise belated switch was signed off by a FIFA committee made up of its president Gianni Infantino and the presidents of the six continental football bodies. FIFA said the vote was unanimous.
The plan was revealed on Wednesday after several rounds of ticket sales to fans around the world since last year.
“FIFA will seek to address any issues arising from this change on a case-by-case basis,” soccer’s world body said Thursday of fans whose travel plans are affected.
The risk to fans “is sufficiently outweighed by the value and benefits of the proposal” commercially, FIFA said earlier this week in a letter to soccer officials proposing the change.
The date change was said to be backed by tournament organizers in the tiny gas-rich emirate, South American soccer body CONMEBOL and the two teams’ national soccer federations.
Qatar will now make their World Cup debut kicking off against Ecuador at 19:00 local time on November 20 after an on-pitch opening ceremony at the 60,000-capacity Al Bayt Stadium.
The men’s national teams ranked 49th and 44th in the world were originally scheduled to meet 24 hours later on November 21 after the draw for the final tournament was made on April 1 in Doha.
In the original schedule, the opening ceremony was still scheduled to take place before Qatar-Ecuador, despite it being the third game of the tournament, and with only an hour to spare after the final whistle of the second game on the schedule, England vs. Iran.
It is unclear why Qatar’s first game was not scheduled in April as the tournament opener.
FIFA acknowledged in its letter this week the “significant ceremonial, cultural and commercial value” of having the opening ceremony before the tournament’s first match with the host nation.
The first match leading up to Thursday’s decider was Netherlands-Senegal in Group A in Qatar, starting at 1pm local time on November 21. This now returns to the cooler hours of 7pm on Monday vacated by Qatar-Ecuador.
Sponsors could also have their plans disrupted, according to Ricardo Fort, a former marketing executive with high-level World Cup backers Coca-Cola and Visa, who described the late date change as “a big problem”. .
“They (sponsors) invited and confirmed hospitality guests, booked flights and hotels and contracted all the necessary logistics. Imagine changing it all!” Fort wrote on his Twitter account.
The change to the opening game allows FIFA to follow the recent trend of the host country having an exclusive day to play the first match of the 64-match tournament.
However, it marks another way the first World Cup in the Middle East and the first of 22 World Cups ever played outside the Northern Hemisphere summer is upending football tradition.
FIFA got agreement from soccer officials around the world in 2015 to postpone the previously scheduled tournament to the usual June-July period, when temperatures typically reach 45 degrees Celsius (113 degrees Fahrenheit) in Qatar.
Qatar committed to sticking to the normal football calendar and promised innovative stadium cooling technology when they bid for the rights to host the World Cup in 2009-10.
When FIFA accepted the inevitable need to delay until Qatar’s colder months, tough negotiations with European leagues and clubs led to the 2015 agreement on a shorter 28-day schedule to minimize the disruption to domestic football that relies on weekend matches.
European leagues such as England’s Premier League, Germany’s Bundesliga and Italy’s Serie A will play until the weekend of November 12-13, just seven days before the new opening date.
These leagues will be closed during the World Cup, which concludes with a final on Sunday, December 18 on Qatar National Day. The Premier League is the first to resume on December 26.
While a Sunday night opener in Qatar should play well with viewers in Asia and Europe, in the United States kickoff will be at 11:00 EST. That puts the World Cup opener in direct competition with NFL pregame coverage.
The U.S. soccer team plays its World Cup opener against Wales late Monday in Qatar.
