Gianni Infantino Addresses Delay Trend In World Cup 2026 Fixtures
The first eight world cup 2026 fixtures did not start on time, and the average delay settled at three minutes across the opening stretch. Mexico and South Africa were the slowest start on Thursday, leaving the tournament with an immediate timing problem that carried into the rest of the first round of matches.
Mexico And South Africa Set The Pace
The opening match between Mexico and South Africa kicked off six minutes late, the largest delay in the early group of games. Qatar and Switzerland followed on Saturday and began almost five minutes behind schedule, showing the issue was not limited to one stadium or one day.
Australia against Turkey started 40 seconds after the official time, and South Korea against the Czech Republic followed at 51 seconds late. That spread matters because it shows the delays were not all the same size; some matches slipped by only a narrow margin, while others drifted several minutes past the listed start.
Scotland, Haiti And The Tunnel
The clearest example came in Massachusetts, where Haiti and Scotland were due to take the field 8 minutes and 40 seconds before kick-off but were still in the tunnel about 90 seconds behind schedule. They entered the pitch nearly two minutes later than planned, even as Scotland fans waited for a first World Cup outing in 28 years and the team chased its first World Cup victory since Italia '90.
Scotland beat Haiti 1-0, but the late arrival at the tunnel showed how tight the pre-match sequence had become. Fifa had planned dedicated pre-match running orders for every match, listing tunnel assembly, pitch entry and anthem timings, and those timetables were built in part so broadcasters airing commercials would not miss the build-up. The games involving Mexico, Canada and the USA were all preceded by opening ceremonies, and those ceremonies had already ended well before kick-off.
Gianni Infantino And Fifa Timing
Gianni Infantino’s organisation had expanded the pre-match ceremonies, which were identified as a possible partial reason for the delays. With none of the first eight matches starting on time, the opening week left a clear gap between the listed schedule and the way the tournament was actually running, a pattern that affected every match in the sample rather than one isolated fixture.
For teams, supporters and broadcasters, the practical takeaway is simple: the listed kick-off time has not matched the actual start so far. The early pattern has already produced six-minute and almost five-minute delays, plus smaller slips under a minute, and the tournament’s opening rhythm has been slower than the printed schedule suggested.
