Monday June 13 has been declared a public holiday for officials in Peru to watch the national team's match against Australia in the 2022 World Cup play-off, the government announced on Friday.
“It has been decided that Monday will be a public sector holiday.
This will allow people to see the national football team qualify for the World Cup,” Culture Minister Alejandro Salas told reporters.
“This is an event of nationalism and national identity that the private sector can join,” he added after a meeting of the Council of Ministers, where the measure was approved, while advancing: "We know that Peru's qualification for the World Cup will reactivate the economy".
Peru faces Australia on Monday at 8 p.m. (1 p.m. in Lima) at the Ahmad bin Ali stadium in Al Rayyan, west of Doha, Qatar, where the World Cup will be played at the end of the year.
The winner against France
The winner of this intercontinental dam will find themselves in Group D of the tournament, with France, Denmark and Tunisia.
Peru dreams of a second consecutive participation in the World Cup, which it had found in Russia in 2018 after 36 years of absence.
On the side of the other intercontinental dam, between Costa Rica and New Zealand, scheduled for Tuesday in the same stadium (9:00 p.m. in Qatar, noon in Costa Rica), the authorities of the Central American country announced that they would authorize officials to "take an extra hour on their lunch break so they can see the play-off".
The decree will apply between 12:00 p.m. and 2:00 p.m. local time, said the presidency of Costa Rica.
Costa Rica, who have appeared at five World Cups, are hoping to qualify for the third time in a row.
The winner of this duel between the Concacaf zones (North, Central America and the Caribbean) and Oceania will find themselves in group E with Spain, Germany and Japan.