See what the facilities are like for the national teams in Qatar 0:59
(CNN Spanish) --
FIFA confirmed this Wednesday that the Qatar World Cup will begin on Sunday, November 20 (local time), one day earlier than planned, to allow the host to play the opening game, which will face Ecuador for Group A.
The match between Qatar and Ecuador will be played at 7 pm local time (11 am ET, 10 am Mexico time, 1 pm Argentina time).
"With this change, a long tradition is maintained whereby the hosts or defending champions open the tournament," FIFA said in a statement.
The decision, which began to emerge on Tuesday, was made official after a meeting of the agency's bureau held in Zurich, Switzerland.
This is how the groups of the Qatar 2022 World Cup were
Originally, the opening ceremony was to take place just before the match between Qatar and Ecuador, on Monday, November 21, scheduled for 11 am ET at the Al Bayt Stadium, which has a capacity of 60,000 spectators.
However, according to the original schedule, before that game the match between Senegal and the Netherlands (Group A, 1 pm local time, 5 am ET) was scheduled.
Now Senegal-Netherlands will be played at 7p.m.
local time (11 a.m. ET) on Monday.
The FIFA Council is made up of the six presidents of the continental international football confederations.
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In terms of reasoning, FIFA offered in its statement that "the decision has been made after assessing the operational aspects and the impact it would have on the tournament, as well as after consulting with the main interest groups and the host country, which have agreed”.
The 2022 FIFA Men's World Cup now takes place from November 20 to December 18.
Lewandowski, Di María and other stars who will play the World Cup in Qatar and changed teams for this season
With information from Matt Foster and Sebastián Jiménez
Qatar World Cup 2022