FIFA Set To Reschedule World Cup To Allow Qatar Play First — Reports

The World football governing body FIFA has requested that the World Cup in Qatar should start a day earlier than planned to allow hosts Qatar to play the first match.

The match between Qatar and Ecuador on November 20 would start at 7 p.m. (1700 GMT) at Al Bayt Stadium.

The news of this development has not yet been commented on by FIFA.

Under the original tournament format, the game would have been the third of four matches scheduled for the first day, Nov. 21 with  Netherlands v Senegal,  England v Iran and the U.S. v Wales.

Under the requested change, the Netherlands game would move from a 1 p.m. kick-off time to the 7 p.m. time originally for Qatar v Ecuador, while England and U.S. games would not be affected.

The request was made after an agreement between both teams and the South American confederation CONMEBOL. It won’t lead to changes of release dates for players.

The host nation played the first match between 1958 and 1970, and again since the 2006 tournament in Germany.

The 1974-2002 tournaments were opened by the defending champion who is no longer an automatic qualifier.

There was no official opening game between 1930 and 1954.