ÖFB fans challenged
Crazy! 53 World Cup matches in the middle of the night
That's never happened before! At the 2026 World Cup in the USA, Canada and Mexico, 53 of the 104 matches will be played in the middle of the night. The FIFA match schedule is hitting Austria and its fans at home particularly hard.
"It's a shame that the kick-off times after Central European Time are not suitable for families," said Bernhard Neuhold, Managing Director of ÖFB Wirtschaftsbetriebe GmbH, after the World Cup match schedule was published on Saturday evening. "Nevertheless, we hope that many fans will not only support us in the stadiums, but also keep their fingers crossed in front of the screens in Austria."
But that requires real standing qualities from the ÖFB fans. Two of the three group matches will only be kicked off after midnight. ÖFB record goalscorer Marko Arnautovic and Co. will kick things off on June 17 (6 a.m.) in San Francisco against Jordan. The final match will be against Algeria in Kansas City on June 28 (4 p.m.). Only the match against world champions Argentina will take place at 7 pm our time.
43 group games at night
But most of the other matches at this World Cup will also be played at night - 43 group matches alone will be played at night, as will seven round of 16 matches, two round of 16 matches and one quarter-final. The times scheduled by FIFA are: 0 o'clock, 1 o'clock, 1.30 o'clock, 2 o'clock, 3 o'clock, 4 o'clock, 5 o'clock and even 6 o'clock. This also means that the traditional four fixed kick-off times per day are a thing of the past, which also means that fans can no longer plan ahead, as every match day is different.
Incidentally, the reason for the night-time kick-offs is the climate. The Club World Cup showed that the players suffered from the enormous heat just so that the games could be shown at suitable times on the European market. They want to avoid that this summer.
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read the original article here.
Liebe Leserin, lieber Leser,
die Kommentarfunktion steht Ihnen ab 6 Uhr wieder wie gewohnt zur Verfügung.
Mit freundlichen Grüßen
das krone.at-Team
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