World Cup set to begin earlier after breaking recent tradition with original plans

England National Team
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FIFA is set to move the start date of the World Cup one day earlier after breaking a recent tradition with the original schedule. 

The summer tournament – which is unusually being held in the winter due to the extreme summer heat in Qatar – was set to begin on Monday November 21st, with Senegal playing the Netherlands in the first game.

However, that is set to change, with the tournament now set to begin on Sunday November 20th with Qatar opening up the tournament against Ecuador.

It has become a recent tradition that the host nation opens up football’s biggest tournament and the original plan had Qatar playing the third match.

The last tournament in which the hosts did not begin the tournament was in 2002, when Senegal memorably beat defending champions France in the opening game of the tournament held in South Korea and Japan.

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This change has yet to be confirmed with approval being sought by the Bureau of the FIFA Council (comprised of FIFA president Gianni Infantino and the leaders of each continental confederation) but it is thought to be a formality, according to Sky Sports.

The Monday will now see three games being played instead of four, with Qatar and Ecuador being the only match on the Sunday.

Although not confusing and an understandable change, this is likely to cause bother to some people, from a tournament that has already caused a lot of scheduling headaches.