Football fans around the world will have to revise their agenda: the kick-off of the World Cup will be given on November 20, and not on the 21st, at the Al-Bayt stadium in Al-Khor, north of Doha.

After agreement of the two nations concerned by this meeting, including the host country, Fifa and the Qatari organizers accepted this rescheduling to Sunday November 20 at 7:00 p.m. local (4:00 p.m. GMT), said these same sources.

It is now up to the office of the FIFA Council to officially record the modification.

The decision will revive a recent tradition whereby the first match of each World Cup is played by the host country, such as Russia-Saudi Arabia during the 2018 edition. November, before Qatar-Ecuador therefore, between Senegal and the Netherlands.

Contacted by AFP, Fifa and the organizers refused to comment on the subject, while the countdown of 100 days preceding the start of the tournament was to be launched on Saturday, with festivities in the emirate.

"There have been discussions and an agreement between the two respective teams and there has been a request from Conmebol," the South American football confederation, one of the sources close to the tournament told AFP. on condition of anonymity as no official decision has been announced.

"We wanted to follow the tradition of the defending champion or the host country being involved in the opening game," she added.

For fans in possession of tickets for the match on November 21, "any disruption will be managed in such a way that the impact is minimal," another source close to the tournament told AFP.

As part of this change, the Netherlands-Senegal match on November 21 would be moved from 1 p.m. local time (10 a.m. GMT) to 7 p.m. (4 p.m. GMT).

"It's a better slot for both teams in terms of TV broadcast and other areas," the source explained.

"Not very important"

On the side of the economic partners, this very unusual change will be "managed" assures Jaime Byrom, president of Match Hospitality, a company having an agreement with Fifa to organize accommodation packages for World Cup matches and which has reserved 450,000 tournament tickets.

"Compared to other challenges that we might have faced or have faced in the past, it's really not a very big problem," Byrom told AFP.

"We will look after our Ecuadorian customers who are traveling from abroad, and make sure they are in time for the game," he said.

The opening match is scheduled for the 60,000-capacity Al-Bayt Stadium, one of seven new venues built specifically for the tournament since the World Cup was awarded to Qatar in 2010.

The gas-rich Gulf state is preparing a spectacular opening ceremony for the World Cup in this stadium, the structure of which was inspired by the traditional tents of the Gulf's Bedouins.

The change in date for the opening match involves a change to the 100-day countdown to the World Cup which was due to kick off on Saturday, with events staged that day across the 2.8 million emirate inhabitants, approximately 90% of whom are foreigners.

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Qatar is the first country in the Middle East to host one of the biggest sporting events in the world.

The competition has been moved from summer to late autumn 2022 due to extreme temperatures in the Gulf emirate.

While Fifa President Gianni Infantino promised Qatar would host the "best" World Cup ever, the country has come under heavy criticism over the rights of migrant workers as well as for its criminalization of homosexuality.

© 2022 AFP