GENEVA: Host nation Qatar is set to play in the opening game of its own World Cup tournament after all — and on a stand-alone day being added to the schedule barely 100 days before kickoff.
Football’s marquee tournament is now set start one day earlier than originally scheduled seven years ago in a move that would allow Qatar to play Ecuador on Nov. 20, a person familiar with the proposal told The Associated Press on Wednesday.
The person spoke on condition of anonymity because the person was not authorized to discuss the matter.
The proposal will be put before a committee comprised of FIFA president Gianni Infantino and the heads of the six continental football bodies, the person said. A decision is expected this week.
According to a letter sent by FIFA this week and seen by the AP, the governing body is asking for approval from the continental football bodies by Thursday.
Qatar should now get an exclusive Sunday slot for its opening ceremony and World Cup debut at the 60,000-capacity Al Bayt Stadium.
The World Cup is currently scheduled to start on Nov. 21, a Monday, based on a FIFA decision in 2015 after it agreed to push back the tournament to avoid the extreme desert heat in June and July. FIFA also got agreement for a shorter, 28-day program to minimize disruption to domestic football, especially in Europe, which will shut down ahead of the World Cup.
Recent World Cup tradition gave 2014 host Brazil and 2018 host Russia exclusive opening days to play their first opponents. But the tighter schedule in Qatar called for four games daily for the entire group stage — 48 games in 12 days.
At the tournament draw in Doha on April 1, the Netherlands, Senegal and Ecuador landed in Group A with Qatar. The Dutch and Senegal were allocated the 1 p.m. local time start and Qatar was to play Ecuador in the third game with an evening kickoff six hours later.
The proposal to create a 29-day tournament instead of 28 has been favored by Qatari officials and South American football body CONMEBOL, with talks also involving the Qatar and Ecuador football federations, the person told the AP.
FIFA acknowledged in its letter that changing the date, after tickets have been sold, would affect some traveling fans. However, FIFA said “any risk is sufficiently outweighed by the value and benefits of the proposal” commercially.
A Qatar-Ecuador game involves only a few players who are with European clubs. Several on the likely Ecuador roster play for clubs in Spain, the United States and Mexico, where leagues stop play ahead of the Nov. 12-13 weekend.
The schedule switch would have been tougher to agree to if Qatar was scheduled to open against the Netherlands, which has key members playing until Nov. 13 with clubs in England and Italy.
Because of the proposal, FIFA is expected to push back the Netherlands-Senegal from the lunchtime start to the early evening slot that would be vacated by Qatar.
While an opening game on a Sunday evening in Qatar should play well with viewers in Asia and Europe, in the United States it puts the World Cup in direct competition with NFL games. The US football team plays its World Cup opener against Wales as the late Monday game in Qatar.
The 2022 World Cup is the first in the tournament’s 92-year history to be played outside of the traditional northern hemisphere summer. The previous 21 editions were all played between late-May and the end of July.
The Nov. 21-Dec. 18 tournament schedule was agreed to so European clubs could play on the Nov. 12-13 weekend before releasing their players to the 32 World Cup teams. Changing opening day should not alter the tournament rule that players must report from their clubs to national teams no later than Nov. 14, FIFA said in its letter.
The final will be played on Qatar’s National Day, a Sunday, allowing a full week for players to return to clubs before the Premier League plays its traditional Boxing Day games on Dec. 26.
Qatar original bid was made to host the tournament in June-July, promising innovative stadium cooling technology to overcome heat expected to reach 45 degrees Celsius (113 degrees Fahrenheit) during the first World Cup held in the Middle East.
In December 2010, Qatar won a controversial bid contest beating the United States 14-8 in a final round of voting by the FIFA executive committee, a group later widely discredited by corruption scandals.
More than four years later, FIFA moved the tournament to be played on dates when temperatures should be around 25 to 30 degrees C (77 to 86 degrees F).
Now, a further seven years later, the dates are set to change again.
FIFA looks to start World Cup in Qatar 1 day earlier
https://arab.news/jegbz
FIFA looks to start World Cup in Qatar 1 day earlier
- FIFA is looking at a plan to let the host nation play Ecuador on Nov. 20
- The World Cup is set to open on Nov. 21 with the Netherlands facing Senegal
A powerful rivalry: Sabalenka and Svitolina set for Australian Open semifinal showdown
- Top-ranked Sabalenka, who is seeking a third title in four years in Australia, is from Belarus
- Players from Ukraine do not shake hands with players from Russia or Belarus at the net after matches
MELBOURNE: Naturally there’ll be attention on the backstory when Aryna Sabalenka and Elina Svitolina meet in the Australian Open women’s semifinals.
Top-ranked Sabalenka, who is seeking a third title in four years in Australia, is a 27-year-old from Belarus. She’s popular on TikTok for her humorous posts and dance routines.
Svitolina is a 31-year-old Ukrainian who will be returning to the Top 10 next week for the first time since returning from a maternity break she took in 2022. She reached her first Australian Open semifinal with a lopsided win over No. 3 Coco Gauff, needing only 59 minutes to end her run of three quarterfinal losses at Melbourne Park.
They’re both regularly asked questions relating to Russia’s war on Ukraine. Both have regularly said they want the focus to be on tennis. Svitolina is trying to bring joy to the people of Ukraine, of course. Sabalenka said she supports peace.
“It’s very close to my heart to see a lot of support from Ukrainians,” she said. “So I feel like (I) bring this light, a little light, you know, even just positive news to Ukrainian people, to my friends when they are watching.”
Players from Ukraine don’t shake hands with players from Russia or Belarus at the net after matches. It’s accepted on both sides.
They’re both on 10-match winning streaks so far in 2026 and entered the season’s first major with titles in warmup tournaments — Sabalenka in Brisbane, and Svitolina in Auckland, New Zealand, her 19th career title. That was Svitolina’s first foray back after an early end to the 2025 season for a mental health break.
Sabalenka, who has 22 career titles including back-to-back Australian championships in 2023 and ‘24 and back-to-back US Open triumphs in 2024 and last year, is 5-1 in career meetings with Svitolina. She is into the final 4 at a major for the 14th time, and has made the final seven times.
“It’s no secret that she’s a very powerful player. I watched a little bit of her (quarterfinal) match. She was playing great tennis, and I think, the power on all aspects of her game is her strengths,” Svitolina said of Sabalenka. “She’s very consistent. For me, I’ll have to ... try to find the ways and the little holes, little opportunities in her game.
“When you play the top players, you have to find these small opportunities and then be ready to take them.”
Svitolina is playing her fourth semifinal at a major — 2019 and 2023 at Wimbledon and the 2019 US Open — and aiming for her first final.
Sabalenka played her quarterfinal against 18-year-old Iva Jovic before the searing heat forced organizers to close the roof of the Rod Laver Arena stadium on Tuesday. She was long gone before Svitolina and Guaff played under the roof at night. At that stage, she didn’t know who she’d next be playing, but was sure “it’s going to be a battle.”
“Because whoever makes it there, it’s an incredible player,” she said. “I think my approach going to be the same. Doesn’t matter who I’m facing.
“I’ll just go, and I’ll be focused on myself and on my game.”
Rybakina-Pegula, 5 vs. 6
Sixth-seeded Jessica Pegula completed the final 4 when she held off fellow American Amanda Anisimova 6-2, 7-6 (1) to move into a semifinal against 2022 Wimbledon champion Elena Rybakina.
Pegula beat 2025 champion Madison Keys in the previous round before ending Anisimova’s run of back-to-back Grand Slam finals.
The sixth-seeded Pegula is hoping to emulate Keys’ run here last year and claim her maiden Grand Slam title in Australia.
“I’ve been waiting for the time when I can kind of break through,” Pegula said. “I feel like I really play some good tennis here and I like the conditions.”
With a 7-5, 6-1 victory in the center court opener Wednesday, Rybakina, the 2023 Australian Open runner-up, ended No. 2-ranked Iga Swiatek’s bid to complete a career Grand Slam — at least for this year.
Rybakina, who was born in Russia but represents Kazakhstan, said she’d focus on the lessons she’d taken from previous trips to the deciding end of the majors.
“Now I’m more calm. In the beginning, when it’s the first final and you go so far in the tournament, of course you are more emotional,” she said. “Now I feel like I’m just doing my job, trying to improve each day. So it’s kind of another day, another match.”
