Thailand timing is great. 3 decent times and 1 late. When ull be in thailand ull be very busy ull be lucky if u watch 1 game a day
https://www.theguardian.com/footbal...to-allow-red-zone-players-to-return-to-action This solution is much better than last month.
I spent 3 weeks of the 2002 World Cup there and it was terrific, but the times were really ideal. Afternoon-Happy Hour-Early Evening leaving the rest of the night to have fun and it was a super fun party atmosphere, even more so than usual. I still plan to spend most of QC22 there as it's almost like my second home. I've made close to 100 trips there since the mid-2000s (used to do 8-10 trips a year) and have a lot of connections there (business, academic, charity). So although the times aren't ideal for me (2AM is a late kickoff for me) and the 7 hour flight time is too long/expensive to hop back and forth, that's where I'll be when not in Qatar.
we all have different preferences, but to me from a pure timing perspective Western Europe offers the best times. During the Group Stage kickoffs are at 11AM, 2PM, 5PM and 8PM. So can go somewhere to watch a game over lunch, then someplace mid-afternoon, then a really fun time at Happy Hour, then an early evening match over dinner. Last match is over by 10PM leaving the rest of the evening to go out and have some fun. Some of the QFs and the Semi come on at 10PM but those are such big games that's a great time also. Then the final at 6PM is fine too. The issue is that a lot of Western Europe will be cold in December but can always choose somewhere further south. In Thailand and other parts of Asia the games come on too late. Nevermind the 2AM kickoff but the other 3 are at 5PM, 8PM, and 11PM. So from 5PM onwards the football occupies the whole evening. It would be WAY better how it was in 2002 when the last match was over by mid-evening leaving the rest of the night to go out. Despite that, I'll be in Thailand but I agree with you that also means I'll be missing some games or be in places with the game in the background and not watching too closely. Both Semis starting at 2AM isn't very convenient either at least for me.
yeh, I'm the same way. 2am is already past my bedtime, forget about 5AM. Just can't do it. And it seems as though FIFA likes to schedule a lot of the more attractive matches in that late time slot. Agree that western Europe is the best location (and also no further away from Qatar than east Asia). I am thinking about Portugal. Easy to get to from New York, nice weather (average high of 17C in Lisbon for late-Nov/early-Dec), good pub and restaurant culture for watching the games, a population that loves football and lots to do during matches that I don't need to watch. Kick off times are perfect for my schedule 10a, 1pm, 4pm, 7pm. Sets-up perfectly for a 9:00p-9:30p dinner after all the matches. The one good thing about an autumn world cup is that flights tend to be cheaper than in the summer. Especially during Thanksgiving when Americans are only thinking about domestic trips. So ideally fly to Lisbon on Wednesday before Thanksgiving and return 11 Dec after quarterfinals. Would only burn 10 vacation days.
Portugal is a good call. A few years back I spent some time in the beach resort town of Albufeira on the south coast and I was blown away by the incredible party scene there. If this were a normal summer World Cup it would have been an amazing place to hang out and watch football all day and have fun at night. But of course this is a winter tournament [thanks again FIFA], and I read that Albufeira is pretty much closed down in winter. So Lisbon probably is the best call in Portugal for the reasons @BocaFan stated. Another advantage is Portugal is more affordable than a lot of other Western European countries where you can run through your travel budget pretty quickly.
You guys are soft. This is standard world cup knockout match kick off times for me. Some group games are a bit earlier, our game against France was a 9PM kickoff last trime but they only happen on days when there are 4 matches. Otherwise standard times are 11PM, 2AM and 5PM.
Nah, can't justify the time and expense of a 6 or 7-hour flight just to be somewhere for 3 days (assuming my main WC base is in western Europe). Then again, 15 months prior to WC 2018 I wasn't planning on going to Russia, so....
It is a troture. Just come to Qatar and thats it But in qatar one group game daily willcbe shown at 9pm australia time. Better timing for you
The Canary Islands would also be an option for a place to relax and watch football in bars. Nice temperature there then.
I went to add Sydney to my time zone chart but when I looked up the time, it shows that the WC22 matches in that time zone will be 9PM, 12-midnight, 3AM, 6AM. Are you considering daylight savings as the tournament is in NOV/DEC? I think Sydney is 2 hours ahead of Tokyo at that time of year. Also, there are 4 matches every day during the Group Stage, even the first day. Local kickoffs are at 1PM, 4PM, 7PM, 10PM for the first 2 matches (6PM and 10PM for the 3rd Group Stage Matches).
I quoted the times I am used to as when the world cups are normally held we are 8 hours ahead of Central European time. Both Brazil and Russia had some different times, Russia had the odd 9PM match and we got one, and Brazil had some mis morning games that suited the prime time american market. Qatar is a bit more mixed up and daylight saving has a 1 hour shift. There are also more 4 game match days giving us more evening games, however the knockout games and final will still be at times that will cost me some sleep. I'm retired now so I can watch games at 5 or 6 AM in full and don't have to miss the end as I'm heading off to work. A sunday final is normally monday morning for me. World Cups in Central European (and also African) time tended to stick fairly close to local 3PM, 6PM and 9PM matches with knockouts at 5PM and 9PM. The knockouts worked out at 1AM and 5AM for me which meant a sleepless night if I wanted to watch both games (the same with Euros). Could do it when I was young but now I stick to the 5AM match as its a bit easier for me. In any case, I'll still be watching what I can from home but probably limit myself from 1 to 2 matches a day (and rely on streaming replays if a game I missed turns out to be a good game).
ok got it. But I think the days of 3 Group Stage matches a day are over forever. Qatar will have 4 per day to accomodate the overall compressed schedule. Then we have the 48-team tournament starting in 2026 that I think will also feature 4 per day, but not sure. I'll rework my kickoff time chart with Sydney added.
OK I cleaned my chart up a bit and added Australia's east coast time zone. If I got something wrong please let me know, I don't want to put out bad information. But I checked the time zones taking daylight savings into account and hope I got it right. This can help out those of us who are planning to do all or part of the tournament in places other than Qatar.
IMO, my home city of San Diego probably has the shittiest times of anywhere. Especially for someone working a typical day job. More reason for me to be somewhere else during the tournament.
Thanks for doing the charts and thanks in advance for adding Sydney. Your work in this is much appreciated. Agree that 4 matches a day in group phase will become the norm rather than the exception. In North America games for prime time in USA start mid morning for me and I'm sure they will still have midday local start times for the European market which mean overnight matches for me.
my good friend from Brisbane wouldn't be happy if he saw that I used Sydney in my chart. But as he's strictly a Rugby League/Broncos/Queensland supporter, he'll never see this! Off topic but WC26 will have 80 matches instead of 64 so I don't know how they will compress all of those games into the allotted time, or even exactly what the tournament length will be. 16 extra games but some of those matchups will be pretty poor.
I'm not from Sydney either but I'm a lot closer to it than Brisbane. I'm about an hour and a bit drive south. Brisbane doesn't do daylight saving so the times are an hour earlier for them.
I just read that Australian daylight savings is really confusing. So best that I stuck with Sydney then for my chart.
Nah, Australia has you beat. Probably 5-6 matches per day for the group stage so that each matchday takes three days. Then four matches per day for stage the round of 32. Alot of crap games though so it will no longer feel like you’re missing something if you just skip a bunch of games.
The match schedule in the 2026 bid only had 4 matches per day, the group stage lasting 13 days (out of 34). Is that out of date?