The meeting between the A1 team resulting from the draw (Qatar) and the A2 team (Ecuador) was initially positioned at 1:00 p.m. at the Al-Bayt stadium, in Al-Khor, on all the documents provided by Fifa, which changed its schedules late Friday evening, when broadcasting the match schedule.
The meeting between the Qataris and the Ecuadorians was therefore scheduled for 7:00 p.m. local time at the Al-Bayt stadium, i.e. after two other inaugural matches, Senegal-Netherlands at the Al-Thumama stadium at 1:00 p.m. and England-Iran at 4:00 p.m. at the Khalifa international stadium. . The poster between the African champion, worn by Sadio Mané, and the Netherlands, will therefore ultimately be the opening match of this World Cup.
Asked by AFP, Fifa could not be reached overnight from Friday to Saturday to explain this change. But the tight schedule of this World Cup, the first to be organized in winter by forcing the major European club championships to take a break, may have led to the scheduling of four matches on the first day of competition, and not the only one. host country game. It is also possible that Fifa wanted to optimize the broadcast times in each of the countries concerned: a match at 1 p.m. in Doha would have fallen to 5 a.m. in Ecuador.
Firmly anchored, the tradition which wants the organizing nation to kick off major football competitions sometimes suffers from exceptions, as in 2002 when there were two host countries (Japan and South Korea).
The rest of the schedule for the first round is thus known and gives some modifications compared to what was originally planned. The French team will play on the 22nd against the barrage (Peru, Australia or the United Arab Emirates) at 10 p.m. local time (8 p.m. in France), on the 26th against Denmark at 7 p.m. local time (5 p.m. in France) and on the 30th against Tunisia at 4 p.m. local time (2 p.m. in France).
