Wimbledon, World Cup final to collide

Wimbledon officials admit that they were caught off guard by FIFA’s scheduling of the World Cup final, a decision that pits soccer’s biggest game against the men’s singles final July 15.

This has implications of increasing proportions, because England could be playing in the championship in Moscow, should the team win its quarterfinal against Sweden and its semifinal next week against the Russia-Croatia winner. The World Cup match is set to begin two hours after the men’s tennis final begins, a decision that Mick Desmond, the All England Club’s commercial and media director, said Wednesday came after a “dialogue” between FIFA and tennis officials.

“We’ve always known it was going to be there, we knew 18 months ago,” Desmond said. “But I think it’s slightly surprising that FIFA have the kick off at 4 o’clock [10 a.m. Central]. It’s not something they’ve done in the past but that’s their decision,” he said. “Our tournament [final] always starts at 2 o’clock [8 a.m. Central], and we’ll start at 2 o’clock.”

The average length of the men’s final since 2002 is 2 hours, 45 minutes. Viewership of England’s victory over Colombia on Tuesday peaked at 24.2 million during the penalty shootout, which was roughly 81 percent of the people watching TV in the UK, according to The Daily Telegraph. Andy Murray’s 2016 final drew 13.3 million viewers and last year’s final, featuring Roger Federer and Marin Cilic, drew a peak of only 6.4 million.

The BBC has already adjusted its plans, saying that the men’s final would appear on BBC1 for one hour, then move to BBC2 for the first time in BBC history. The All England Club does not plan to show the soccer match on its grounds, even if England is playing in the final.