There has never been a World Cup match schedule like this. The first World Cup, played in November and December to escape Qatar’s desert heat, is just the starting point for other unique features.
For the players and fans in Qatar and spectators around the world, the games come on a quicker and often more intense schedule than any previous group stage. This tournament required four different kickoff time slots to function, although they were used on the first Saturday of previous tournaments.
In Qatar, there will be back-to-back-to-back games for seven consecutive days to squeeze this World Cup into just 29 days.
The total is three days less than those used to play the 2018 tournament in Russia and the 2014 edition in Brazil.
A 32-day tournament using five full weekends was not available this time because FIFA had to strike in 2015 with European leagues and clubs having to abandon the World Cup in the middle of their domestic season.
The European league group warned of “very serious damage” to the sporting and financial interests of its members by a shutdown for at least six weeks.
While high-profile clubs and stars such as Erling Haaland take an extended break or head off to training camps, the World Cup players have time ahead.
Teams in Groups G and H, such as Brazil and Portugal, have the least number of rest days. To win the title, they will have to play seven matches in just 25 days. The World Cup doesn’t even stop between the group stage and the round of 16.
“It will be a very tiring tournament and it is true that we will start later,” Portugal coach Fernando Santos said after the draw on 1 April.
“The only advantage I see is starting on the 24th,” he said, noting that the teams playing on November 21 — England, the Netherlands, the United States — have fewer days to prepare.
Santos, who wants those extra pre-tournament days for practice, pointed to the dilemma facing most of the 32 coaches at the World Cup, where typically 75% of selected players are employed by European clubs.
European domestic leagues were mostly playing games until Sunday, the final day before players were mandated by FIFA to remain with their national teams.
This leaves only one week of official preparation time, instead of the usual minimum two weeks prior to the World Cup.
In the Premier League on Sunday, Ecuadorean players Moises Caicedo and Parvis Estupinen were on the field for Brighton just a week before their national team open the World Cup against Qatar.
When the clock in Doha struck midnight on Monday – FIFA’s November 14 deadline to put players on national-team duty – squad members from Argentina, Brazil, France, Poland and Serbia were still on the field in Italy , where the Juventus-Lazio game ended around 11 pm local time.
“We don’t have time to prepare the team, just seven days,” Croatia coach Zlatko Dalic said in April. “It won’t be easy for us.”
There was no perfect solution when FIFA confirmed the inevitable switch of dates in 2015, accepting the World Cup could not be played or held in June, when temperatures in Qatar would reach 45 °C (113 °F). Is.
Seven years ago, the preferred European option for a January 2022 tournament was rejected by FIFA’s then-leaders because of its direct conflict with the Winter Olympics in Beijing.
“Of course, it is not an ideal situation to play in November and December,” the then UEFA Secretary-General Gianni Infantino (now FIFA President) said in March 2015, “and we would have preferred to play in January because it would have had less impact.” ”
Nevertheless, the agreement to play in November and December led to a five-month delay that proved necessary when the COVID-19 pandemic wreaked havoc with international soccer. Almost all the World Cup qualifying games scheduled in 2020 were postponed.
When it came to finalizing World Cup dates, one red line was making sure the Premier League would have its traditional 26 December games.
The happy solution for Qatar was holding a four-week tournament with the final on a traditional and auspicious Sunday – the emirate’s national day on 18 December.
