Adedapo Adesanya
By Adedapo Adesanya
The first match of the 2022 FIFA World Cup taking place in Qatar may be moved backward by the organisers, new reports suggest.
The reason is to allow the host nation to be involved in the first match and will mean that the tournament will now be staged from November 20 to December.
The tournament had originally been scheduled to get underway on Monday, November 21 with African champions, Senegal, taking on the Netherlands in Group A.
However, multiple reports confirm that FIFA now plans to move host nation Qatar’s opening clash against Ecuador, also in Group A, to Sunday, November 20 as the curtain-raiser.
This has yet to be confirmed with approval being sought by the Bureau of the FIFA Council (compriseing FIFA president Gianni Infantino and the leaders of each continental confederation) but it is thought to be a formality, according to multiple reports.
Host nations usually start the global tournament in the opening game of each of the last four editions of the tournament; Germany beat Costa Rica 4-2 in 2006, South Africa was held 1-1 by Mexico in 2010, Brazil defeated Croatia in 2014 and Russia eased past Saudi Arabia four years later by a 5-0 rout.
The last tournament in which the hosts did not begin the tournament was in 2002 when Senegal memorably beat defending champions France, 1-0 in the opening game of the tournament held in South Korea and Japan.
It will be the first time in the World Cup’s 92-year history that the competition is being staged in the middle of the European domestic season and ensures that the Premier League – alongside other major leagues across the globe – is being paused for six weeks after the opening three months of the campaign.
It will be only the second World Cup held in Asia, after the 2002 edition in South Korea and Japan, and the last one to feature 32 teams before it increases to 48 teams in 2026, which will be held in USA, Canada, and Mexico.
The knockout stage will begin with the last 16, followed by the quarter-finals and semi-finals, and ending with the third place play-off on Saturday, December 17, 2022, and the final on Sunday, December 18, 2022, at the Lusail Iconic Stadium.
