The world football governing body has announced the timetable for the sporting spectacle just 27 months before the 2022 edition of the FIFA World Cup in Qatar.
The World Cup will officially kick off on November 21, 2022, at the 60,000-seat capacity Al Bayt Stadium, with its distinctive “tent” style covering, according to the detailed schedule released Wednesday.
The tournament runs through December 18, 2022, when the final is played at the 80,000 Lusail Stadium, which will also host a semifinal, like Al Bayt.
According to an ESPN report, during the Qatar 2022 tournament group stage, the World Cup will experience a versatile time schedule that will give viewers an unparalleled ability to watch as much as four games a day on tv, spread out over 11 hours.
With the relatively short travel distances and connectivity between venues in and around Doha, fans who are traveling to the 32-team tournament could be able to attend multiple games every day.
The early games will kick off at 1 p.m. local time, with the fourth match starting at 10 p.m. local time and finishing just before midnight.
Nasser Al Khater, CEO of the organizing company for the Qatar World Cup, said preparations for the tournament were well on track with 85% of the construction on roads and utilities being done.
“When we talk about the stadiums, more than 85 per cent of the work has been completed and really now, the last two years, we’re focusing on our operational readiness and making sure we get the fan experience plans in place,” he said.
“The World Cup is always a festival of football, a real celebration for the fans who come on-site and watch,” FIFA chief tournaments and events officer, Colin Smith, said. “In Qatar, with the compact nature, this is going to be amplified even more with 32 teams and 32 sets of supporters all in and around Doha.”
“FIFA will wait until the draw for the tournament is held in March or April of 2022 before assigning specific games to venues and time-slots. That will enable them to better align games with time zones for domestic television partners of the competing teams. The tournament was switched from it’s usual June-July slot due to the heat in the Gulf state and is the first that will be held in the middle of the European season.”
Two months after FIFA has rescheduled qualification tournaments due to the coronavirus pandemic, the match draw for the 2022 World Cup in Qatar is to be pushed back.
In June, FIFA said its council agreed to delay an intercontinental four-team playoff-from March 2022 to June of that year-due to congestion of fixtures.
The draw for the 32-team tournament was scheduled for April 2022, probably at Doha. The earliest choice now is to keep it ahead of the November 21 to December 18 tournament in June.
If Nigeria makes it to Qatar, it will be the seventh appearance of the country’s World Cup and was also included in the World Cup editions of 1994, 1998, 2002, 2010, 2014 and 2018.