With the format change increasing the number of games by 30%, they got the exact proportional increase from 10 to 13 games. The three knockout matches each is exactly the same as what was proposed in the original bid.
So can we be confident that - wherever possible - AFC, CAF and UEFA teams will play earlier in the day and that Concacaf and Conmebol teams will kick-off later?
i assume the kick offs in europe will be... CEST: 18.00, 21.00, 0.00, 3.00 EST: 12.00, 15.00, 18.00, 21.00 CST: 14.00, 17.00, 21.00 WST: 12.00, 15.00, 18.00 so on tournament day 3 with Boston, NY/NJ, Vancouver and SF Boston at 12 local time NY/NJ at 15 local time Vancouver at 15 local time SF at 18 local time. all in all 4 matches a day means that they do not do parallel kick offs (except on the last matchday for fairness reasons). very good!
for 64 to 104 is not an increase by 30% but like around 80% ah got it.. you are referring to. the oroginal plan with lile 88 games or so
The 2026 FIFA World Cup schedule is here. 🤩 pic.twitter.com/FbdPQXIsLw— CBS Sports Golazo ⚽️ (@CBSSportsGolazo) February 4, 2024
after a deeper analysis i am more or less convinced it is like that. the schedule has never 3 matches in the western region and an additional 4th match in the central region. if that was the case, they would have had to kick ff at 11 am at the central venue what they apparently want to avoid.
They did switch times after the draw in Qatar. They kindly rescheduled one of our games to a late evening kickoff (my time) rather than the middle of the night.
Match schedule Q&A: https://digitalhub.fifa.com/m/23aa99b288fe8a0d/original/FWC26-Match-Schedule-QA.pdf
At 56 days, the period from the mandatory release date to the end of the tournament will remain identical to the 2010, 2014 and 2018 editions of the FIFA World Cup. (FIFA Q&A)
- The final four matchdays of the group stage will feature six matches per day. Matches in the same group will be played simultaneously to maintain the integrity of the competition. - All other group-stage matchdays will feature four matches per day across four kick-off times.
Just for the sake of completeness, there's one more zone as the Mexican cities will be on the equivalent of US Mountain Time--they are Central Time but don't change for the summer. So 13:00, 16:00, 19:00 there. Those times in a few other places: 2:00, 5:00, 8:00, 11:00 Sydney/Melbourne 1:00, 4:00, 7:00, 10:00 Japan/Korea 00:00, 3:00, 6:00, 9:00 China 21:30, 00:30, 3:30, 6:30 India 19:00, 22:00, 1:00, 4:00 Qatar 13:00, 16:00, 19:00, 22:00 Argentina/most of Brazil
thanks for correcting it. well Asia is quite on the bad end of it. but i cannot see they move it to reasnabble times in Nkrth america and asia at the cost of europa. image a +3 hours to all matches would result in 15.00, 18.00, 21.00 anx 24.00 at the US east coast. it only moves everything in asia from night to morning which isnt good either and qatar and saudi arabia will have then wc at only night matches. thise and europe are the most relevant markets apart from america and als south america isnt thrilled about 16, 19, 22 and 1am. maybe +1 hour to those i foresee is an option. however. i favor daytime matches anyways.
So no F1 vs F2 or F3 vs F4 until post draw. They will assign city pairs... say Dallas and KC to a specific group later this year but FIFA is reserving the right to put which team where until post draw. Basically cities can "appeal" to FIFA to get the big seeded team.
East Asia always gets the bad end of it because of geography, but FIFA did shift times around for some games in Qatar to allow some time zones to watch a game of their national team at a reasonable hour. Admittedly the game we were involved in that was shifted was a game against an African side rather than a European one. It's really only the first kickoff time in the list you quoted (if that's what they end up with) that will be difficult for me. The second match means getting up an hour and a bit early and as I'm retired the last two time slots should be fine. If they use that as a timetable and the conversions are correct games at 8AM and 11AM are quite good for me.
Yeah got it but i didn’t expect to have a kick off time for m34 in Kansas City on 20th June but i think an actual kick off time for the final game, semifinals and opening game it wasn’t too much to ask for. Also they already know what the kick off times will be for group stage and KO rounds and i think it’s a bit disappointing that we don’t have that info by now
Yep, but at least I can now see if I can string certain games/venues into a 2-3 week road trip.........even though I won’t get any tickets anyway ( well, maybe not until the FCFS).
while anything is possible with FIFA, even they can't go that far I assume that bracket will be announced sometimes prior to the draw and then they will assign games within particular groups to stadiums previously assigned to those groups, and set appropriate kickoff times to fit the time zones. with this schedule there will be at least two groups played in two countries. but we are talking about FIFA .... never say never!
This might well be the reason. Let us assume - by example they draw B1 - Argentina B2 - Austria B3 - Ghana B4 - South Korea So they keep B1-B4, but instead of a standard sequence like Matchday 1: ARG v AUT + GHA v KOR Matchday 2: ARG v B3 + AUT v KOR Matchday 3: ARG v KOR + AUT v GHA ...they shuffle according to an AI generated optimized group schedule into Matchday 1: ARG v GHA + AUT v KOR Matchday 2: AUT v KOR + ARG v GHA Matchday 3: ARG v AUT + GHA v KOR
Yes, that could well be the reason. The guiding principle is the global audience; scheduling will try to maximise it as much as possible. After all, that's how how they secured that staggering 5.500m engagement figure for Qatar 2022.