I'm still of the opinion that the thread will suffice for now, but feel free to raise your suggestion in the Customer Service forum. Can confirm - essentially the entire conversation was assessed as toxic and removed.
https://inside.fifa.com/about-fifa/comm ... qatar-2022 The data presented here is staggering and shows how popular major NT football competitions still are. Based on the data below, I'd expect more Asia-friendly kick-off times in 2026. Asia and Oceania accounted for just over half of the total engagements (2.591 billion) for the tournament, which was played in Qatar in November and December 2022, while Africa and the Middle East provided the next-biggest audience (945 million). Across individual markets, China led engagements with 1.161 billion ahead of India (745.7 million). For example, if the final starts at 2000 ET that's 0200 CEST, 0100 CEST (UK/Portugal), 0800 (China) and 0530 (India).
"China accounts for 49.8% of all hours of viewing on digital and social platforms globally". UK 111.72 million hours of content were streamed on the BBC and ITV digital platforms in the UK, this represents around 100 minutes per person, the second highest per capita viewership of any audited market (behind only Argentina). USA Telemundo’s streaming coverage of the Final delivered an average minute audience (AMA) of 3.00 million viewers, making it the most-streamed FIFA World Cup Match in U.S. media history, regardless of language. On FOX the match earned an AMA of 1.31 million, the highest ever for a World Cup match on the platform.
China/India friendly kickoffs will be a challenge. I can’t see anything starting before 11am ET (even that’s a stretch), which is already 11pm in China and 9:30pm in India. But there will definitely be some nighttime local kickoffs (after 7pm ET), and those will at least be during daytime morning hours in Asia, albeit at the expense of being the middle of the night in Europe.
Good point, the 9pm-midnight ET window will be perfect for the Americas/Asia TV audience and for fans/players in the stadium (lower temperatures too). Everyone except Europe will be happy.
India is UTC+5:30 so a noon EDT kickoff would translate to 9:30pm in India. Pretty ideal. But of course, that's just one match per day. In any case, there's only one small region of India where soccer is somewhat popular, so not sure why any consideration will be given to India (no offense). The big question for me is when we are down to just 2 matches per day, will the kick-off times be 12:00 and 3:00 EDT (ideal for Europe, Middle-east and Africa; terrible for Americas and east Asia) or 6:00 and 9:00 EDT (ideal for Americas, decent for east-Asia; terrible for Europe) or 3:00 and 6:00 EDT (one ideal time and one inconvenient time for everyone)?
i do not believe they risk a riot in Europe and Africa with having them playing mostly at night between 1 am and 7 am. it will be mostly kick off times like traditionally NFL matchea have.
seening the schedule now for the FIFA Club World Cup pretty much confirm the expected kick. off times. I would be very surprised, if they opt to chamge it for. the 2026 WC later. So it is like (for most of the matches) 12pm EST = 5pm British Standard Time 3pm EST = 12pm WST = 8pm BST 6pm EDT = 3pm WST = 11pm BST 9pm EST -= 6pm WST = 2am BST Of course the time. zones in Mexico Dallas, KC and so. on are between EST and WST That is the best choice in my. opinion. this also means a lot of matches starting at 12am / 1pm local time. which is. much better in hot conditions than at 3, 4 or 5 pm. additionally there are many indoor arenas with cooled down climate. interesting side topic. will there be cooling a/c also in the roofless arenas like in Qatar 2022?
and final of CWC is at 3pm at. the MetLife. in East. Rutherford so this is 8pm UK time. first full daylight wc final since Pasadena 1994 expected.
Michail Antonio has crashed his Ferrari. West Ham are asking for "thoughts and prayers". Sounds serious.
now knowing the CWC schedule, it will be very interesting to find out if they are going to do the works in the stadiums for CWC or opt to wait another year, especially in Met Life that is going to host final, both semis and one quarterfinal as well. also atlanta with it‘s huge viewing obstructions … would really like to know what the plan is?
Tomorrow at 12pm CET, the UEFA qualifying groups are drawn. a lot has been discussed about the odd format. but here some apecial infos, that might have gotten unnoticced. 1.) the ranking of the teams for the 4 paths isnbased on a table where the runners-up are listed and only the matches against the top 4 within a groups count (as we have groups of 4 and groups of 5) Position 1-4 is playing vs the 4 team from the UNL qualification path with encounters being decided by an extra draw and the first have home advantage Position 5-8 is playing against position 9-12, with the first named having home advantage. fornthe finals of each path, the home. field is decided by draw. quite similar to the WC 2022 UEFA playoffs. 2) All playoffs, 4 in Europe and thebintercontinental ones are all played in March 2026 3 months before the WC. But the draw will be in December 2025 most propably. therefore the 4.UEFA play off winners are placeholders and will be placed in pot 4. that means in case of bigger teams like for example France, Belgium, England or Croatia only reaching the UEFA playoffs, they will add to a heavyweight 4th pot and groups of death are clearly possible to envision.
First two pots Group A: Germany v Italy winner, Slovakia Group B: Switzerland, Sweden Group C: Portugal v Denmark loser, Greece Group D: France v Croatia winner, Ukraine Group E: Spain v Netherlands winner, Turkey Group F: Portugal v Denmark winner, Hungary Group G: Spain v Netherlands loser, Poland Group H: Austria, Romania Group I: Germany v Italy loser, Norway Group J: Belgium, Wales Group K: England, Serbia Group L: France v Croatia loser, Czechia
Full draw Group A: Germany v Italy winner, Slovakia, N. Ireland, Luxembourg. Group B: Switzerland, Sweden, Slovenia, Kosovo. Group C: Portugal v Denmark loser, Greece, Scotland, Belarus. Group D: France v Croatia winner, Ukraine, Iceland, Azerbaijan. Group E: Spain v Netherlands winner, Turkey, Georgia, Bulgaria. Group F: Portugal v Denmark winner, Hungary, Rep of Ire, Armenia. Group G: Spain v Netherlands loser, Poland, Finland, Lithuania Group H: Austria, Romania, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Cyprus Group I: Germany v Italy loser, Norway, Israel, Estonia Group J: Belgium, Wales, North Macedonia, Kazakhstan Group K: England, Serbia, Albania, Latvia Group L: France v Croatia loser, Czechia, Montenegro, Faroe Islands
Again about the avoidable mess, as expected you can now see that for at least three of the four quarterfinalist it would IMO be beneficial to lose your two legged UNL QF to get a slightly easier pool. Only the Germany/Italy perhaps get an easier group by winning.
Put in terms of FIFA rankings Group A: Germany v Italy winner, 41, 71, 92 Group I: Germany v Italy loser, 43, 76, 123 Group F: Portugal v Denmark winner, 30, 60, 100 Group C: Portugal v Denmark loser, 39, 45, 98 Group D: France v Croatia winner, 25, 70, 117 Group L: France v Croatia loser, 42, 73, 137 Group E: Spain v Netherlands winner, 28, 68, 82 Group G: Spain v Netherlands loser, 35, 69, 142
I remember when draws were simple. Sometimes a mess is unavoidable, or the benefits outweigh the mess, but that is clearly not the case here. Totally avoidable mess with zero benefit! I reckon for some of the pro/rel NL playoffs its also better to lose.
I think just generally speaking, if you are a pot 1 team/the favorite, you rather play 8 qualifying matches than 6. More time for the cream to rise to the top.
I wanted both Turkey and Georgia in the world cup but the draw decided that only one of them is going to make it to the play-offs (Assuming the winner of Spain / Netherlands wins the group) The most interesting groups to me are Group B: Switzerland, Sweden, Slovenia, Kosovo and Group C: Loser of Portugal / Denmark, Greece, Scotland, Belarus Nah, the loser of Spain / Netherlands gets a waay easier group than the winner