XtraTime Web Desk: Football fans of the country do not have to wake till late night to watch the final of the FIFA World Cup 2022 in Qatar. The kick off time for the final is slated at 20:30 IST. There will be four group stages matches everyday for 12 days. The governing body of World football released the schedule of Qatar 2022 on Wednesday. The quadrennial event will be played in November and December. The kick off times for group stages matches are fixed at 1 p.m. (1000 GMT), 4 p.m. (1300 GMT), 7 p.m. (1600 GMT) and 10 p.m. (1900 GMT).
The tournament will kick start in the 60,000-capacity Al Bayt Stadium on November 01 at 1pm IST. The final will be start at 8:30pm IST on Dec. 18 at the 80,000-capacity Lusail Stadium. The matches will be played across eight venues in close proximity to Doha over 28 days rather than the 32 days used at the last World Cup in Russia to minimize the disruption to the European season. Teams and fans will not need to fly around Qatar because stadiums are within a 30-mile radius.
Both semifinals — like some games in the previous rounds — will kick off at 1pm IST. and will spill over into the next day if there is extra time, or even just long injury and VAR delays in regular time. There is no space for a gap without games between the group stage and round of 16. Most teams will get three days of rest between games, which FIFA said was “optimum for sporting performance.”
But teams in two last-16 matches will only have two days of rest. For the third-place playoff, one losing semifinalist will have two recovery days while the other has three. FIFA is looking to stage the draw for the tournament in late March or early April 2022, when 30 of the 32 finalists will be known.
It is the last World Cup with 32 teams before the expansion to 48 nations at the 2026 tournament in the United States, Canada and Mexico.