Hosts Qatar will kick off the 2022 World Cup at the Al Bayt Stadium on November 20, football's world governing body FIFA announced. The group stage will last for 12 days with four matches being played in a day. According to FIFA, this is being done to give the players ample rest before the knockout stage of the tournament.
Ahead of the FIFA WC 2022, legendary footballer, Lionel Messi's huge poster has been prepared and put up by fans in Kozhikode, Kerala. Messi has a huge fan following all over the world including in India. Here’s the video:
"The local kick-off times for group matches have been set for 13:00, 16:00, 19:00 and 22:00, with the simultaneous kick-offs for the last round of group games and knockout-stage timings being 18:00 and 22:00," the FIFA statement read.
This is the second time the World Cup is being hosted by an Asian nation. The last time the showpiece event was held in the continent was in 2002 when Japan and South Korea hosted the tournament together.
"The World Cup is always a festival of football, a real celebration for the fans who come on-site and watch. In Qatar, with the compact nature, this is going to be amplified even more with 32 teams and 32 sets of supporters all in and around Doha," FIFA Chief Tournaments and Events Officer, Colin Smith was quoted as saying in the statement.
"The tournament's compact nature -- with no air travel needed to move between the venues -- will allow organisers, for the first time, to optimise specific match demands for the benefit and comfort of fans, teams and media," the statement read further.