In Qatar, the 2022 FIFA Men’s World Cup will begin on November 20. 32 teams will battle for the largest prize in world football throughout the following month.
The 22nd edition of the competition is being played for the first time in the Middle East, and in accordance with World Cup custom, the host nation will take the field in the first game.
FIFA is urging viewers to concentrate on the sport as the event gets underway because controversy about human rights and infrastructure has surrounded the tournament ever before Qatar was selected as the host nation.
The competition is being played in November and December rather than June and July to protect players from the sweltering temperatures that affect Qatar in the middle of the year. Brazil, Argentina, and France are among the nations likely to go to the latter stages of the competition.
The Sporting News provides all the information you need to know about what to anticipate from the opening game of the Qatar 2022 World Cup.
When is the first game of the World Cup?
On Sunday, Nov. 20, host nation Qatar will face Ecuador at Al Bayt Stadium in Al Khor to kick off the 2022 FIFA World Cup.
Following a FIFA adjustment to the World Cup schedule, the game will begin at 7 p.m. local time (11 a.m. ET / 4 p.m. GMT).
When the schedule was first released in April 2022, Senegal vs. the Netherlands was chosen as the opening match, and the tournament was initially slated to begin on Monday, Nov. 21.
Three months before the tournament was scheduled to start, FIFA intervened and decided that Ecuador would play Qatar in the tournament’s opening game. This decision ensured that the host country would not miss the opportunity to host the first World Cup game.
World Cup 2022 first match
The opening game of the 2022 World Cup will be preceded by an opening ceremony, as is typical.
The 60,000-seat Al Bayt Stadium, which has a retractable roof, will serve as the setting for the opening ceremony, during which viewers will be introduced to the tournament’s official anthem, mascot, and soundtrack.
At 5 o’clock, there will be an opening ceremony. the K-Pop star Jung Kook of BTS will perform at local time (9 a.m. ET / 2 p.m. GMT).
Which stadium will host the World Cup opening match?
At Al Bayt Stadium in Al Khor, the FIFA World Cup 2022 opening ceremony and opening game will take place.
Al Khor, located 35 kilometres (km) north of Doha, the capital of Qatar, was created by architects Dar al-Handasah to imitate the traditional bayt-al shaar tent used by the nomadic people of Qatar.
The stadium’s outside is marked by horizontal black and white stripes, and the interior is decorated with colourful sadu patterns.
World Cup kickoff times
The opening matches of the group stage are scheduled to begin at 1 p.m. local time (5 a.m. ET / 3:30 p.m. IST), with subsequent matches beginning at staggered intervals throughout the day. The group stage will have three additional kickoff windows, with the last one beginning at 10 p.m. local time (2 p.m. ET / 12:30 a.m. IST).
The group stage will consist of up to four matches each day.
There will only be two main kickoff windows per matchday during the knockout stage. Either 6 p.m. local time or 8:30 p.m. Indian local time will be the game start time for the knockout rounds.
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