World Cup sides to reap benefit of compact Qatar

FOOTBALL teams at the next World Cup will on average have more than eight hours extra to prepare for every match compared with the 2014 tournament due to the small size of the host country, Qatar.

The tiny Gulf state — which is half the size of Wales — will hold four matches a day during the group stage of the 2022 tournament, starting at 10am (GMT) with a final kick-off at 7pm.

With all eight stadiums in a 40-mile radius of each other, fans will face hardly any travel, be able to watch two matches a day and stay in the same hotel for the duration of the tournament.

Organisers released the full match schedule two years to the day since France beat Croatia in the 2018 World Cup final in Russia.

They promised the most compact tournament ever with no air travel needed to move between venues.

A study of distances teams had to travel during the World Cup in Brazil four years ago shows on average each team will have eight hours, 38 minutes and 24 seconds more to rest, train, recuperate and prepare for their next match at the tournament in Qatar.

In 2014 the USA team based itself in San Paulo and clocked up 22,908 miles travelling from there to match venues in the north of the country — Natal, Manaus, Recife and Salvador.

This compared with a total of 200km that a team would travel in Qatar going from Doha to stadiums in Ras Abu Aboud, Lusail, Education City and Lusail.

In total the USA team lost 4.5 days to domestic air travel during their 2014 campaign.

The 32 countries taking part in Brazil had a combined total of 464 days between them to complete their matches.

By losing 95 days to travel, they had only actually had a total of 369 days to get the matches done.

In comparison, teams in 2022 will have a combined total of 392 days.

But as they will not lose any days to domestic air travel, they will also have 392 days to complete.

So, even though the tournament will be four days shorter in 2022, the 32 participating nations will have a combined 23 more days to get their matches played.

The tournament’s opening match will be played at the 60,000-seater Al Bayt stadium in Al Khor on Monday, November 21, with the final being held at the 80,000 Lusail Stadium in Doha on Sunday, December 18.

Hassan al-thawadi, General Secretary of the Supreme Committee for Delivery and Legacy, “genuinely believes” Qatar 2022 “will be the first global celebration where we will collectively have overcome Covid-19”.

He said: “This highlights the concept of the compact World Cup that we’ve always talked about.

“Fans can watch more than one match a day and the compact nature of the tournament gives it a unique spirit and will be the first time people experience it”.