On Monday, November 21st the summer tournament – unusually held in winter due to extreme summer heat in Qatar – was scheduled to start with Senegal taking on the Netherlands in its first game.
But that’s about to change. The tournament will now begin on Sunday, November 20th, with Qatar hosting the tournament against Ecuador.
The host nation has been opening up the biggest tournament in football for a while now. The original plan was to have Qatar play the third match.
In 2002, the last tournament that the hosts didn’t open was the one in which Senegal beat France in the first game. This tournament was held in South Korea and Japan.
Read more about FIFA’s plans to change the World Cup start date so that Qatar can host the tournament. ?? pic.twitter.com/o1EeG5wt40
— Sky Sports News (@SkySportsNews) August 10, 2022
This change has yet to be confirmed with approval being sought by the Bureau of the FIFA Council (comprised of FIFA president Gianni Infantino and the leaders of each continental confederation) but it is thought to be a formality, according to Sky Sports.
On Monday, three games will be played instead of the usual four. Qatar and Ecuador will play the sole match on Sunday.
While this change is not confusing and easy to understand, it will cause some confusion for people who have already had to deal with a lot of scheduling problems.
