Qatar has had 12 years to plan for the World Cup. Now, with the primary games of the tournament just over 100 days away and the intricate match schedule announced months ago, organizers have requested changes that might make the event start a day earlier so the host nation can have a featured place within the opening game.
Lately, the World Cup host nation has appeared within the tournament’s first match, because the headliner within the monthlong event’s elaborate opening ceremony. But this yr, in a break with that tradition, organizers took the weird step of scheduling Qatar’s first game because the third of 4 matches on a busy first day of competition on Nov. 21.
Now a proposal to maneuver Qatar’s game to Nov. 20 has been sent to probably the most senior officials of FIFA, soccer’s global governing body and the organizer of the World Cup. Those officials, a bunch that features the leaders of soccer’s six global confederations and the FIFA president, Gianni Infantino, will determine whether to approve it.
It’s unclear why organizers — and FIFA — had not originally planned for Qatar to play within the tournament’s opening game, a stage reserved for each tournament host because the World Cup was staged in Germany in 2006. Before then, the defending champion was customarily granted the honour of opening the tournament.
“It has been a longstanding tradition to mark the beginning of the FIFA World Cup with a gap ceremony on the occasion of the primary match featuring either the hosts or the defending champions, an element that is taken into account to have significant value from a ceremonial, cultural and business standpoint,” FIFA wrote in a letter to members of the bureau that was reviewed by The Recent York Times.
Along with changing the date of Qatar’s opening game against Ecuador, the proposed adjustment would affect one other match set for the tournament’s opening day: Senegal’s game against the Netherlands, which could be moved out of its afternoon time slot into a night window.
Planning for the Qatar World Cup has been bumpy. Granting the hosting rights to Qatar eventually required FIFA to maneuver the event to the Northern Hemisphere’s winter since the searing summer temperatures within the Gulf were deemed to pose a possible health risk to players, officials and the a whole lot of hundreds of fans expected on the tournament.
The switch has upended the soccer calendar, resulting in an unprecedented midseason interruption to the European league season and other competitions all over the world. Negotiations with clubs — furious in regards to the weekslong disruptions to their league schedules and tv contracts — resulted within the tournament’s being played in fewer days (28) than every other event because it was expanded to 32 teams in 1998.
“Because the tournament approaches, the FIFA administration is now fully aware of the assorted sporting, operational, business and legal implications of this uniquely compressed schedule,” FIFA wrote in its letter.
FIFA told officials that it would love them to approve the change by Thursday evening European time.
The sudden push to vary the date of the opening game has only added to concerns about Qatar’s readiness to stage the World Cup. Already fans are complaining a couple of shortage of accommodations and a scarcity of clarity over the consumption of alcohol throughout the tournament.
Should the switch of the opening match be approved, overseas ticket-holders who had planned to attend would face the potential challenge of fixing their travel plans and rebooking hotel rooms, and any players competing in European leagues — Ecuador at times has greater than a dozen — would have one fewer day to travel and prepare.
The plan has already caused disquiet amongst ticket holders, with the proposed changes making some combos of games all but not possible for visitors to attend. Recent York-based Martín Bauzá told The Times he had secured tickets for the sport between Senegal and the Netherlands and the USA opener with Wales later that day. FIFA switching Senegal’s game to the later slot means he wouldn’t have the option to attend each games, with the second game starting an hour after the primary ends.
“I did purchase Senegal/Netherlands specifically due to the time difference between matches and in accordance with the FIFA ticket rules that require 4 hours between matches (i.e., cannot purchase tickets to back to back matches) which is now the scenario I could have to cope with,” Bauzá said in a message.
World Cup organizers said they’d consulted with Qatar and the soccer associations of the 2 affected teams before proposing the change. Its letter suggested neither national team objected to the change.
Individually, a FIFA appeals committee is considering an appeal by Chile to throw Ecuador out of the World Cup over accusations that Ecuador had fielded an ineligible player. Several Ecuadorean players based in Europe would only have six days to arrange for the tournament, fewer than any others involved within the World Cup.
“The FIFA administration has assessed the business and legal implications of the proposal — including the impact on contractual commitments across media rights, sponsorship, and ticketing and hospitality — in addition to the impact on traveling fans, and has determined that any risk is sufficiently outweighed by the worth and advantages of the proposals,” FIFA said within the letter.
