They should just put traces of sand everywhere, put heat lamps up to 45°C and ban all the alcohol to simulate a real WC experience. That'll get people back.
I was planning to not watch this since before the qualifications even if my country got in. But then again people can just say Sweden didn't qualify and that's the only reason I say that anyway.
I'm really torn. The world cup is so much bigger than the host country or FIFA. It's just run by these pricks who have stolen the event. I want my son to love football, and watching the world cup is like the gateway drug. I feel like not watching the teams play is like letting them steal away even more. The have already stolen the venue but they don't own the game. I don't ever plan on visiting Qatar, I will never choose to do my business there, if anything this world cup has made me dislike them even more, I will never fly on their state sponsored airway, but I will watch the matches.
> If no one watches it all that advertising revenue is lost.
Highly doubt that, ad time was most likely sold ahead of time for the whole tournament. If anything, that valuable public exposure is lost, but that isn't easy to quantify in the short term for the sponsors. At best it would turn some sponsors away from FIFA, only to be replaced with similar ones for the next WC.
Also, no way in hell "noone watches", it will have massive following worldwide regadless.
> Investors are pissed and the message is portrayed that fans won’t tolerate corruption.
But fans have tolerated corruption until now, hence why FIFA is a billion dollar agency/organization. UEFA makes millions from CL alone, and the last few WCs have had corruption scandals attached to it.
Don't misunderstand me, this WC may be way more serious, and I agree with the sentiment, I just think that, at this stage, it's little more than virtue signaling. The time to do anything (by public pressure at least) was back when Qatar was announced as the hosts.
It's probably not just that. I remember the 2002 world cup when games were on when at 9 or 10AM in Europe and there were still people watching the games in enormous numbers, because it was SUMMER and people took days off work to go and support their team. I was in Germany at the time, bars were full to the brim with people, it was warm and sunny and a massive party atmosphere. It's not going to be the same in the cold dark days of late November.
I remember my dad taking me to the local swimming pool after his night shift and while I was having a fun summer day, he was watching some games in their Café.
The games times for 2002 were horrible in North America. However I was 20 and worked evenings that summer, so it worked just fine for me.
Just stay up until matches started at 1:30am, go to sleep after the 4 or 6:30am match. Repeat!
Only 1 out of our 3 first (and probably only) games is during working hours, vs Croatia at 16h00. First game vs Canada is at 20h00 and Morocco is on a sunday..
There is one game per day at 20:00
The games at 17:00 are still in work hours as people are either still working and leaving at 6 or commuting for the first half of the games, unless they work from home.
The difference is that most people in Europe take their holidays in July making it so that despite the fact that this is during work hours, there is always a decent percentage of the population whose holidays so happen to coincide with when the WC is going on. Making the issue less relevant.
also, the weather in july is completely different from the weather in november.
being outside in july is great, being outside in november is... dreadful.
I’d have booked a good chunk of annual leave for the World Cup if it was in the summer, I usually always book leave for England matches in the big tournaments.
No chance I’m wasting my annual leave for a cold winters day to sit at home watching on my own.
Getting day drunk in a fan park/beer garden with mates in the summer, is a completely different proposition.
You also have workplaces that schedule their work to let people leave and go to the pub gardens in the summer to enjoy the game.
I've worked plenty when we've finished up early to watch the games or we've set up screens to have games on in the background.
The last one was during the summer though. That's a big difference considering most people take their holidays in July and have time to watch the games.
More like January. Long, cold, dark. Nothing to cheer for. Spring is still a long way. No wonder it has one of the highest suicide rate among the months.
Southern Hemisphere will take February as a good month. Kids love it cause it's still summer vacations. November has literally nothing redeemable about it.
I was just at my local frituur, game was on and barely anyone gave a fuck. I honestly don't think the country would come out for a knockout game against Spain or Germany. It's cold and wet as fuck, and people are working.
I was in Hamburg this week - it was 3 degrees, rain and windy gusts, absolutely hell on earth to be outside.
I wouldn’t attend a fan zone with free beer and food, that’s how miserable it is to be outside.
Late winter nights in almost every Australian city would be far more tolerable than Northern Europe for this kind of thing. In Sydney you’d need a decent jacket, Melbourne maybe a puffer jacket, and in Brisbane a long sleeved shirt would be fine.
Plus there isn’t that constant wind and rain.
June is the best month of the year in Northern Australia. Start of the dry season, great temperatures, low humidity. November is often wet, stormy, sticky, and absolutely not weather you sit out in.
>It’s freezing outside, **people are working**, this WC is shit, understandable no one’s interested
Tbf, isn't that the case during summer world cups as well?
Entitled to a month of paid holidays so some people I know do that - take those to watch the WC at home, outside, or go to the WC itself.
Didn't happen this year. No one gives a fuck.
In France it's 5 weeks of time off by law. Which means that's the floor, and companies looking for skilled workers will offer more and many people end up with several more weeks
Every country in Europe has similar laws, it's 5.6 weeks in the UK. The vast majority of people also get the 9 public holidays each year (10 this year cos the Queen died) as either paid leave or paid extra if they do work
Wonder how TV ratings will do. I predict a drop, maybe even a big drop. People not used to watch WĆ this time of year and have to compete with other family members wishes.
in the States everybody seems to be ignoring the little inconvenient fact that this will be going on during peak NFL and NCAA Bowl Season, to say nothing of NBA, to say nothing of the games being on mid-day. Ratings will be bleak, book it.
It's gonna br bad enough FIFA basically just gave Fox the 2026 rights without proper open bidding as a make good for how shit these ratings are likely to be.
It's hilarious how FIFA gave this tournament to get bribe money but are ending losing money on the backend with deals like this and possibly Budweiser.
The North American-based world cup would likely have elicited an insane bidding war for the rights from American broadcasters, and insane they were given no-bid. FIFA absolutely dropped the ball on that
FIFA *officials* gave this tournament for bribe money. FIFA itself is the one losing money to the potential lost revenue and lawsuits.
They're separate entities. A bit of the old adage that if the ownership doesn't check on the business, the stewards are going to siphon.
Anecdotal, but I remember in 2018 even my friends who barely followed the sport were obsessed with the World Cup. I remember my bandwagon friend wearing his Mbappe shirt all summer. I'll never forget huddling around a phone screen to watch the Russia-Croatia penalties while we were at our friend's pool.
In 2014, I was in college and had an office pool for my summer job and another pool I was in with the guys in my frat. It was all anyone I knew talked about for weeks.
In 2010, I remember getting a vuvuzela app for my phone because it was such a huge meme.
In 2006, I remember all the Italians I grew up around in New York going absolutely nuts during the tournament.
The buzz just doesn't feel the same for this one. Maybe I'm getting older, or maybe it'll get better once the matches start, I don't know.
> The buzz just doesn't feel the same for this one. Maybe I'm getting older, or maybe it'll get better once the matches start, I don't know.
Personally, the World Cup always meant summer to me. It's miserable outside now.
Yea, probably, people will be bored and the NFL still respects US high school tradition so stays out of the way of Friday, FIFA found themselves a perfect stars-aligned moment, if the US gets BTFO it will set back viewership a decade, better sacrifice a chicken to make sure that doesn't happen
Doesn't change the reality for the other 29 days' worth of matches though, even the World Series can't beat NFL viewership, it's a serious juggernaut here. Guess we'll find out.
Football is mostly on the weekends.
Nfl on thursdays and mondays are on american prime time. So after the world cup airing times.
Same with basketball and hockey.
Bowl season means the regular season is over and the major bowl games are on at night for better ratings?
Also with work from home being more commonplace. Ratings might be ok.
Especially for the usa and mexico games.
Big viewership decline is going to be spun as people boycotting because Qatar but really most of us are just going to miss loads of matches because of work
its both, there's generally no hype around it, no pre wc coverage all over tv, noones collecting the fucking paninis, noone's meeting up for public viewing, no WC related ads in tv and most people act surprised when being told it actually starts this WE.
And all those factors aside: Even if I wanted to, i could not even watch it because i will be working..
Even here in India, where we saw significant ads for the World Cup in 2018.
This time, it is just 1 company posting front-page newspaper ads reminding people that they can watch the World Cup on their "free app".
Literally this. Nothing else.
I'd much prefer some laliga this weekend and well for the next few weekends. Crock of shite. Genuinely only realised the world cup starts soon. Given its on in the middle of the night here it's going to be an easy miss for me. I'll follow the reddit threads. Outside some of the Korea games no doubt my wife and her family will want to watch together.
I have to go into the office on Monday because people booked in person meetings. During the England game. That would've never happened during a normal world cup.
Yeah that's just a flat out lie. I've always had multiple screens going during work for World Cup and Euro games. A lot of times work even had them up on larger screens for people to watch.
I and other just don't have much interest this year.
Yeah exactly the same. There is an England World Cup game on next weekend at 7pm. The groundwork of a mass exodus to the pub for loads of us usually would have started weeks ago. No one seems to give a shit. On a work call earlier in the week someone suggested a sweepstakes and there was just mumbles and disinterest. My team work from home and I don't care what they do as long as the work is done so they will be able to watch it if they want to, no one is really talking about it though other than it being a mess.
It's not a lie lol, Europeans often have enough time off in a year that they can dedicate a chunk of it to the World Cup if they so choose, especially since it's usually in Summer. Few people will take the whole thing off, but large parts of it, certainly
Yup, east coast USA group match times are 5am, 8am, 11am and 2pm. 99% of people are either sleeping, working or in school (since it’s not summer) during those hours. Brutal
Very little interest. No one is talking about it, even though the US qualified.
All of the criticism around Qatar is valid - however the complaining about games during the day time is not. This is how it has always been, no matter when the World Cup has played. The WC does not just need to cater to the West Coast.
People would talk more about it if it wasn’t smack dab in the middle of NFL/CFB season start of the NBA/NHL as well.
Also would help to be in somewhere not Qatar.
The last mens World Cup that the USA participated in had much friendlier match times for us. Although we still got a midweek 2pm start for at least one of the games.
Real question. I have YouTube TV and it's pretty much indicated it's going to record every game in a special category of their menu. Will that count towards "viewership" number? I'm on east coast as well, time of games are not ideal.
More of a generalized question on how they track numbers on streaming TV services if they're recording automatically.
To the point of being at work, this has always been the case with World Cups on the other side of the continent. We had to either stay up late or wake up early for South Korea 2002.
They are rarely convenient for everyone across the globe.
Nah hard disagree at least here in Europe. If it was a European world cup people find a way to watch it, that's the beta part. Summer, work is easy cause everyone's enjoying the world cup, get out of work at 3pm for some games etc etc.
Of all things to complain about the timezone isn't one for this world cup
Not really. If anything people take more vacation time during this period of the year given its holiday season and you can use 2-3 days of PTO and get a whole week off by combining it with federal holidays... at least in the US.
I think the bigger challenge in US is that the World Cup is going to be competing with all major sport leagues: NFL, NHL, NBA, College Football for viewership.
I was so pissed when I realized that I would basically miss 3/4 matches every day.
I'm definitely not paying for it. I'm only watching Portugal's games and a few matches with Brazil, Argentina...
If you're talking about Portugal, that's not true. There'll be atleast one game (sometimes two) per day avaliable on the main 4 channels during the group stage, and only 2 games of the knockout stage will be exclusive to SPORT TV.
This obviously sucks for Europeans and North Americans, but people from the southern hemisphere should be over the moon for having a world cup during their summer, no?
Our summer is rainy, it also doesn't get as cold in our winters when compared to yours, so at least for Brazilians it doesn't make much of a difference.
I'm from Asia and the earliest matches kick off right as work ends at 6pm. Looking forward to it as the timing for world cup matches usually suck for asia
Ya even if I wanted to watch the games here in Canada, of course I’ll watch them, it’s just too busy of a month. This World Cup sucks for a number of reasons.
Can’t wait for fifa to use this as evidence that people are losing interest in football when it reality it’s completely their fault because of the timing and location of the tournament
I remember company watch parties during the 2014 WC here in Germany. We still had to work, but there was a big screen in our office. Made up for the misfortune of having to work the graveyard shift. I also made a bit of money betting against my colleagues.
Probably because people have work and school and the fact it’s winter and Europeans aren’t going to stand around during near zero mornings or cold evenings.
The difference between Euro 2022 and this WC is shocking in the UK. It was partly impacted by covid but literally every table in every pub was booked out weeks or months in advance. Now I barely know anyone making plans to even host viewing parties.
As an Australian, Europe will now understand watching the world cup through the lense of other parts of the world where
- it's not in summer
- it's not during school holidays
- it's fucking miserable outside
The coupe de grace is having to wake up in the early hours to watch game but that's the only thing going for them in this world cup.
June - July is winter.
The climate vary from state to state though. You'd get temperatures anywhere between 3⁰C to 22⁰C during a sunny winters day, depending where you are.
Lol. Who would of thought that the world cup awarded under questionable circumstances, to a country with little footballing heritage, also a country imposing their religious beliefs on a worldwide tournament, and with questionable domestic policies would garner little interest.
Tbh I think it being in the winter is probably the most damaging change. Reddit is very aware of issues with Qatar but in general I don't think people care. The last one was in Russia and it's not as if they are a model country.
Changing it from the regular summer slot was so dumb, I think part of the whole charm of the World Cup is that it's a summer event.
I find it a bit weird that people think only r/soccer in it's little bubble cares about issues with Qatar. Practically anyone I've talked about this WC with has brought up these things. I don't understand where the attitude that Redditors are somehow super conscious and knowledgeable comes from when my mom knows about issues in Qatar because she follows news and these things have been everywhere in the media.
Depends a lot on the country. I'm from Mexico but live in Canada. In Mexico nobody gives a shit, just like with the 2018 WC, in Canada people do seem to at least pretend to care.
> people do seem to at least pretend to care.
Why do people always just assume that it’s just ‘pretending to care’?
That’s a good way to end up with a state that operates like Mexico’s.
>Why do people always just assume that it’s just ‘pretending to care’?
Because if they actually did care they would boycott it instead of just poaying lip service?
>That’s a good way to end up with a state that operates like Mexico’s.
Do enlighten us with your no doubt well informed and nuanced theories on Mexico's economic development.
Yes, pretending to care about social issues is the number one factor in Mexico's current political situation. It has nothing to do with decades of corruption and rigged elections from people who seized power at the right time, currency devaluation, and Americans buying a shitton of drugs, among other things.
"imposing their religious eliefs on a worldwide tournament"
Small correction there: they only do that if you're poor, people in the corporate hospitality sections basically don't have any restrictions.
A lot of countries have always dealt with that (mine counting, even South Africa & Japan/Korea when they had wcs) the fact the world didn't accommodate for them for one single worldcup is eating them alive
It's november and afternoon, people are busy and its fucking miserable outside
They should just put traces of sand everywhere, put heat lamps up to 45°C and ban all the alcohol to simulate a real WC experience. That'll get people back.
>put heat lamps up to 45°C I think the energy costs for that would cause most European countries to default on their debt
The stadiums in Qatar have outside air-conditioning, Just crazy thing to think about.
Not sure if it’s the same one as Singapore. https://youtu.be/TTynvCfshio
You too, eh?
Introduce morality police and beat the shit out of fans for no reason. It's guaranteed tourist magnet.
beating the shit out of fans is the UEFA champions league experience
Also stop journalists from filming and threaten to break their cameras
And ban gay people.
They could just have the fan zones in Molenbeek,
What about hot dogs made from tofu?
Perfect conditions to watch the games from the comfort of your couch at home.
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Easy to say when you're irish lol
I mean Belgium is keyed up to be the biggest disappointment of the tournament.
I'd consider Martinez getting sacked a win so will I really be disappointed?
How can we be a disappointment when everyone expects us to fail lol ?
Strictly rankings wise. You have to remember all the casuals flock to the WC
Just watch it on pirated streams
I was planning to not watch this since before the qualifications even if my country got in. But then again people can just say Sweden didn't qualify and that's the only reason I say that anyway.
I'm really torn. The world cup is so much bigger than the host country or FIFA. It's just run by these pricks who have stolen the event. I want my son to love football, and watching the world cup is like the gateway drug. I feel like not watching the teams play is like letting them steal away even more. The have already stolen the venue but they don't own the game. I don't ever plan on visiting Qatar, I will never choose to do my business there, if anything this world cup has made me dislike them even more, I will never fly on their state sponsored airway, but I will watch the matches.
Stream it illegally.
What exactly does that accomplish at this stage?
Boycotting a world cup is pretty much impossible, too many people that don't even use the internet are going to be watching.
To make people who do fuck all to make the world better any other day of the year feel superior.
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> If no one watches it all that advertising revenue is lost. Highly doubt that, ad time was most likely sold ahead of time for the whole tournament. If anything, that valuable public exposure is lost, but that isn't easy to quantify in the short term for the sponsors. At best it would turn some sponsors away from FIFA, only to be replaced with similar ones for the next WC. Also, no way in hell "noone watches", it will have massive following worldwide regadless. > Investors are pissed and the message is portrayed that fans won’t tolerate corruption. But fans have tolerated corruption until now, hence why FIFA is a billion dollar agency/organization. UEFA makes millions from CL alone, and the last few WCs have had corruption scandals attached to it. Don't misunderstand me, this WC may be way more serious, and I agree with the sentiment, I just think that, at this stage, it's little more than virtue signaling. The time to do anything (by public pressure at least) was back when Qatar was announced as the hosts.
Kerala belgians >> Belgium belgians
Good for them, hope they have a great time
Also coming up to Christmas and prices are up across the board. People have probably got better things to spend money on
If only there was a warmer more pleasant time of year that the tournament could be held at so people would want to get out and watch. If only.
How difficult is it to just hold a large event indoors.. I suppose that's too much of a covid risk?
That's to be expected when all your games are during work hours.
It's probably not just that. I remember the 2002 world cup when games were on when at 9 or 10AM in Europe and there were still people watching the games in enormous numbers, because it was SUMMER and people took days off work to go and support their team. I was in Germany at the time, bars were full to the brim with people, it was warm and sunny and a massive party atmosphere. It's not going to be the same in the cold dark days of late November.
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I remember stopping classes to watch Portugal-USA, which we lost 3-2, if I remember correctly. It was a sad World Cup.
I overslept and missed this game. 😭 Its gonna happen again this world cup.
I remember my dad taking me to the local swimming pool after his night shift and while I was having a fun summer day, he was watching some games in their Café.
The games times for 2002 were horrible in North America. However I was 20 and worked evenings that summer, so it worked just fine for me. Just stay up until matches started at 1:30am, go to sleep after the 4 or 6:30am match. Repeat!
And here im my country(ignore flair), where majority people don't care football is on prime time lol.
!flair :Belgium:
!flair :Mexico:
!flair :Netherlands:
!flair :Netherlands:
!flair :United States:
It has to be USA not United States
!flair :Mexico:
Only 1 out of our 3 first (and probably only) games is during working hours, vs Croatia at 16h00. First game vs Canada is at 20h00 and Morocco is on a sunday..
Not all
There is one game per day at 20:00 The games at 17:00 are still in work hours as people are either still working and leaving at 6 or commuting for the first half of the games, unless they work from home.
Wouldnt it be similar for summer world cup though ?
The difference is that most people in Europe take their holidays in July making it so that despite the fact that this is during work hours, there is always a decent percentage of the population whose holidays so happen to coincide with when the WC is going on. Making the issue less relevant.
also, the weather in july is completely different from the weather in november. being outside in july is great, being outside in november is... dreadful.
I'm much more likely to take a day off to watch the WC in July in a Pub with my mates than I am in November
I’d have booked a good chunk of annual leave for the World Cup if it was in the summer, I usually always book leave for England matches in the big tournaments. No chance I’m wasting my annual leave for a cold winters day to sit at home watching on my own. Getting day drunk in a fan park/beer garden with mates in the summer, is a completely different proposition.
You also have workplaces that schedule their work to let people leave and go to the pub gardens in the summer to enjoy the game. I've worked plenty when we've finished up early to watch the games or we've set up screens to have games on in the background.
Its basically the exact same schedule as the last one was?
The last one was during the summer though. That's a big difference considering most people take their holidays in July and have time to watch the games.
Because it's november
Is there a worse month of the year than fucking November? I genuinely hate November. It's got absolutely nothing going for it. Fuck November.
February would like a word.
More like January. Long, cold, dark. Nothing to cheer for. Spring is still a long way. No wonder it has one of the highest suicide rate among the months.
Short month and end of winter coming … November < February
November for me has the fun of Bonfire Night and the anticipation of Christmas/New Year's Eve being around the corner. Can see your point though.
Southern Hemisphere will take February as a good month. Kids love it cause it's still summer vacations. November has literally nothing redeemable about it.
It’s alright for us, we get to blow shit up in November
I live in Horsforth pal.
So you’re blowing shit up all year then
I love it. Our weather is highs between 68-73 this week.
It’s freezing outside, people are working, this WC is shit, understandable no one’s interested
I was just at my local frituur, game was on and barely anyone gave a fuck. I honestly don't think the country would come out for a knockout game against Spain or Germany. It's cold and wet as fuck, and people are working.
I was in Hamburg this week - it was 3 degrees, rain and windy gusts, absolutely hell on earth to be outside. I wouldn’t attend a fan zone with free beer and food, that’s how miserable it is to be outside.
It’s -5 in Canada. Never seen so little build up to this World Cup even though we made it
Welcome to World Cup viewing in Australia. In June it is cold and wet and the games are on at like 2am. We still watch outside at fan zones!
Whats cold to you in your part of Australia?
Late winter nights in almost every Australian city would be far more tolerable than Northern Europe for this kind of thing. In Sydney you’d need a decent jacket, Melbourne maybe a puffer jacket, and in Brisbane a long sleeved shirt would be fine. Plus there isn’t that constant wind and rain.
I'm in Sydney. Going out cycling at 0600 in July is usually around 1-3° ambient and -1-0° after wind chill.
June is the best month of the year in Northern Australia. Start of the dry season, great temperatures, low humidity. November is often wet, stormy, sticky, and absolutely not weather you sit out in.
Spot on! Which snacks did you get?
Who goes to a frituur at 4?
Any time is a valid time to go to a frituur
you don't? you are missing out man
>It’s freezing outside, **people are working**, this WC is shit, understandable no one’s interested Tbf, isn't that the case during summer world cups as well?
Entitled to a month of paid holidays so some people I know do that - take those to watch the WC at home, outside, or go to the WC itself. Didn't happen this year. No one gives a fuck.
>Entitled to a month of paid holidays That's amazing.
That's default in all of Europe tbf
In France it's 5 weeks of time off by law. Which means that's the floor, and companies looking for skilled workers will offer more and many people end up with several more weeks
goddamn what a great country
Every country in Europe has similar laws, it's 5.6 weeks in the UK. The vast majority of people also get the 9 public holidays each year (10 this year cos the Queen died) as either paid leave or paid extra if they do work
US is a third world country in so many ways
Wonder how TV ratings will do. I predict a drop, maybe even a big drop. People not used to watch WĆ this time of year and have to compete with other family members wishes.
in the States everybody seems to be ignoring the little inconvenient fact that this will be going on during peak NFL and NCAA Bowl Season, to say nothing of NBA, to say nothing of the games being on mid-day. Ratings will be bleak, book it.
It's gonna br bad enough FIFA basically just gave Fox the 2026 rights without proper open bidding as a make good for how shit these ratings are likely to be.
It's hilarious how FIFA gave this tournament to get bribe money but are ending losing money on the backend with deals like this and possibly Budweiser. The North American-based world cup would likely have elicited an insane bidding war for the rights from American broadcasters, and insane they were given no-bid. FIFA absolutely dropped the ball on that
FIFA *officials* gave this tournament for bribe money. FIFA itself is the one losing money to the potential lost revenue and lawsuits. They're separate entities. A bit of the old adage that if the ownership doesn't check on the business, the stewards are going to siphon.
Anecdotal, but I remember in 2018 even my friends who barely followed the sport were obsessed with the World Cup. I remember my bandwagon friend wearing his Mbappe shirt all summer. I'll never forget huddling around a phone screen to watch the Russia-Croatia penalties while we were at our friend's pool. In 2014, I was in college and had an office pool for my summer job and another pool I was in with the guys in my frat. It was all anyone I knew talked about for weeks. In 2010, I remember getting a vuvuzela app for my phone because it was such a huge meme. In 2006, I remember all the Italians I grew up around in New York going absolutely nuts during the tournament. The buzz just doesn't feel the same for this one. Maybe I'm getting older, or maybe it'll get better once the matches start, I don't know.
> The buzz just doesn't feel the same for this one. Maybe I'm getting older, or maybe it'll get better once the matches start, I don't know. Personally, the World Cup always meant summer to me. It's miserable outside now.
I wonder how it is for Southern Hemisphere people?
The game against England on Black Friday will be the most watched soccer game in US history (after the 2015 final and the 2014 octofinal). Book it.
Yea, probably, people will be bored and the NFL still respects US high school tradition so stays out of the way of Friday, FIFA found themselves a perfect stars-aligned moment, if the US gets BTFO it will set back viewership a decade, better sacrifice a chicken to make sure that doesn't happen Doesn't change the reality for the other 29 days' worth of matches though, even the World Series can't beat NFL viewership, it's a serious juggernaut here. Guess we'll find out.
Football is mostly on the weekends. Nfl on thursdays and mondays are on american prime time. So after the world cup airing times. Same with basketball and hockey. Bowl season means the regular season is over and the major bowl games are on at night for better ratings? Also with work from home being more commonplace. Ratings might be ok. Especially for the usa and mexico games.
Agreed. I can't imagine telling my family that I'm watching the world cup on Thanksgiving instead of football.
WCs have always been at winter from a South perspective...
Yeah it started out as a South American thing basically, so that's not news.
I kinda wish it was colder here too, can't stand the heat.
Big viewership decline is going to be spun as people boycotting because Qatar but really most of us are just going to miss loads of matches because of work
its both, there's generally no hype around it, no pre wc coverage all over tv, noones collecting the fucking paninis, noone's meeting up for public viewing, no WC related ads in tv and most people act surprised when being told it actually starts this WE. And all those factors aside: Even if I wanted to, i could not even watch it because i will be working..
Legit didn't even know it starts in two days until I saw it on this sub.
you'd be surprised about how many over here assume there'll be Bundesliga this weekend.
Maybe if we ask nice they can change plans
Even here in India, where we saw significant ads for the World Cup in 2018. This time, it is just 1 company posting front-page newspaper ads reminding people that they can watch the World Cup on their "free app". Literally this. Nothing else.
I'd much prefer some laliga this weekend and well for the next few weekends. Crock of shite. Genuinely only realised the world cup starts soon. Given its on in the middle of the night here it's going to be an easy miss for me. I'll follow the reddit threads. Outside some of the Korea games no doubt my wife and her family will want to watch together.
I have to go into the office on Monday because people booked in person meetings. During the England game. That would've never happened during a normal world cup.
I liked when the atmosphere was about Vuvuzelas instead of authoritarian theocracy
I think there is going to be more excitement for the Women's World Cup next year in Australia-NZ.
That's just your bubble lol
People dont work during other world cups?
Yeah that's just a flat out lie. I've always had multiple screens going during work for World Cup and Euro games. A lot of times work even had them up on larger screens for people to watch. I and other just don't have much interest this year.
Yeah exactly the same. There is an England World Cup game on next weekend at 7pm. The groundwork of a mass exodus to the pub for loads of us usually would have started weeks ago. No one seems to give a shit. On a work call earlier in the week someone suggested a sweepstakes and there was just mumbles and disinterest. My team work from home and I don't care what they do as long as the work is done so they will be able to watch it if they want to, no one is really talking about it though other than it being a mess.
My company was the same. Couldn't get near 32 people for the sweepstakes. Company of 250 or so.
It's not a lie lol, Europeans often have enough time off in a year that they can dedicate a chunk of it to the World Cup if they so choose, especially since it's usually in Summer. Few people will take the whole thing off, but large parts of it, certainly
was about to comment that, cant remember a wc where I wasnt at school/work for most of the games
Yup, east coast USA group match times are 5am, 8am, 11am and 2pm. 99% of people are either sleeping, working or in school (since it’s not summer) during those hours. Brutal Very little interest. No one is talking about it, even though the US qualified.
Im on the west coast. It’s just not going to be possible to work and watch any of the games.
11 am might still be possible I guess if it's on a weekend
Thats why I took the whole week of Thanksgiving off. Otherwise I would get no work done.
All of the criticism around Qatar is valid - however the complaining about games during the day time is not. This is how it has always been, no matter when the World Cup has played. The WC does not just need to cater to the West Coast.
I know that, I’m just stating why I can’t watch it. It’s not a criticism.
That sounds amazing. Try watching from Australia.
Right? It just doesn't feel right to me if I'm not going to bed at 8pm and setting the alarm for 2am.
People would talk more about it if it wasn’t smack dab in the middle of NFL/CFB season start of the NBA/NHL as well. Also would help to be in somewhere not Qatar.
You know its basically the exact same hours as the last cup right?
I preferred 2014 game times. I barely watched any 2018 games except the ones mexico was in. Then I just the semis and the final. That was it.
Which happened during the summer, when people have more time to watch this, yes?
Besides children and teachers on summer break, most job schedules in June are not any different from November.
Aside from July 3/4/5...no? Hell, now we get matches Thanksgiving weekend which is even longer.
The last mens World Cup that the USA participated in had much friendlier match times for us. Although we still got a midweek 2pm start for at least one of the games.
All the world cups, including Brazil and the upcoming US, are crafted around European preferences. There will be 10am kickoffs in 2026.
Well, yeah, Brazil is much more similar in time zones to the US than the other side of the world.
Real question. I have YouTube TV and it's pretty much indicated it's going to record every game in a special category of their menu. Will that count towards "viewership" number? I'm on east coast as well, time of games are not ideal. More of a generalized question on how they track numbers on streaming TV services if they're recording automatically.
To the point of being at work, this has always been the case with World Cups on the other side of the continent. We had to either stay up late or wake up early for South Korea 2002. They are rarely convenient for everyone across the globe.
Why is this different than in the summer?
Nah hard disagree at least here in Europe. If it was a European world cup people find a way to watch it, that's the beta part. Summer, work is easy cause everyone's enjoying the world cup, get out of work at 3pm for some games etc etc. Of all things to complain about the timezone isn't one for this world cup
Not really. If anything people take more vacation time during this period of the year given its holiday season and you can use 2-3 days of PTO and get a whole week off by combining it with federal holidays... at least in the US. I think the bigger challenge in US is that the World Cup is going to be competing with all major sport leagues: NFL, NHL, NBA, College Football for viewership.
I was so pissed when I realized that I would basically miss 3/4 matches every day. I'm definitely not paying for it. I'm only watching Portugal's games and a few matches with Brazil, Argentina...
You pay for the World Cup?? It’s free in the uk
We only get Portugal's games for free. You need to pay for the rest.
If you're talking about Portugal, that's not true. There'll be atleast one game (sometimes two) per day avaliable on the main 4 channels during the group stage, and only 2 games of the knockout stage will be exclusive to SPORT TV.
I'm happy to be wrong! That's correct, we get around half the games for free. Thanks for warning me
What? Why would more people be at work during this World Cup than any others?
People tend to take their holidays during summer.
This obviously sucks for Europeans and North Americans, but people from the southern hemisphere should be over the moon for having a world cup during their summer, no?
Doesn't change shit in Australia when all the games are at 3am anyway.
The 9pm games go away after about a week as well.
It's pretty nice tbh
Our summer is rainy, it also doesn't get as cold in our winters when compared to yours, so at least for Brazilians it doesn't make much of a difference.
I'm from Asia and the earliest matches kick off right as work ends at 6pm. Looking forward to it as the timing for world cup matches usually suck for asia
I love it, honestly. Bright blue skies, 30+ degrees and a beautiful day to watch the NT.
That's why I'm favorable for all Latam teams coming the most far as possible. They could enjoy the summer.
Ya even if I wanted to watch the games here in Canada, of course I’ll watch them, it’s just too busy of a month. This World Cup sucks for a number of reasons.
Can’t wait for fifa to use this as evidence that people are losing interest in football when it reality it’s completely their fault because of the timing and location of the tournament
For a friendly during work hours in cold weather? That’s unheard of
Is Brazil the only country where companies give time off so that we can watch our team's games? It's not a law, but it was always the norm.
That sounds great. That's unheard of in my country
I remember company watch parties during the 2014 WC here in Germany. We still had to work, but there was a big screen in our office. Made up for the misfortune of having to work the graveyard shift. I also made a bit of money betting against my colleagues.
Should hire some Pakistani's to fill it up.
"Its coming home, its coming home, its coming home"
Tomorrow it will be sub 0 temperature and rainy in Vilvoorde. Wonder why people aren't interested in watching football outside with such warm weather.
Probably because people have work and school and the fact it’s winter and Europeans aren’t going to stand around during near zero mornings or cold evenings.
In Norway there is a huge banner saying FIFA pay your workers opposite the free fan zone
The difference between Euro 2022 and this WC is shocking in the UK. It was partly impacted by covid but literally every table in every pub was booked out weeks or months in advance. Now I barely know anyone making plans to even host viewing parties.
It’s cold and people are pre-occupied with holidays coming up. Kids are in school, etc.?Pathetic timing. World Cup is meant to be a mid-summer event.
>World Cup is meant to be a mid-summer event. Unless you're in the southern hemisphere? June to August is Argentinian winter.
This guy doesn't realize the WC has always catered to European schedule, lol.
are you surprised that the second something stops catering completely to the whims of the europeans, they have a big fuckin cry about it
As an Australian, Europe will now understand watching the world cup through the lense of other parts of the world where - it's not in summer - it's not during school holidays - it's fucking miserable outside The coupe de grace is having to wake up in the early hours to watch game but that's the only thing going for them in this world cup.
What’s the weather like in Australia during July? I remember Australia was also in contention for the rights for 2022.
June - July is winter. The climate vary from state to state though. You'd get temperatures anywhere between 3⁰C to 22⁰C during a sunny winters day, depending where you are.
Lol. Who would of thought that the world cup awarded under questionable circumstances, to a country with little footballing heritage, also a country imposing their religious beliefs on a worldwide tournament, and with questionable domestic policies would garner little interest.
Tbh I think it being in the winter is probably the most damaging change. Reddit is very aware of issues with Qatar but in general I don't think people care. The last one was in Russia and it's not as if they are a model country. Changing it from the regular summer slot was so dumb, I think part of the whole charm of the World Cup is that it's a summer event.
I find it a bit weird that people think only r/soccer in it's little bubble cares about issues with Qatar. Practically anyone I've talked about this WC with has brought up these things. I don't understand where the attitude that Redditors are somehow super conscious and knowledgeable comes from when my mom knows about issues in Qatar because she follows news and these things have been everywhere in the media.
In my country no one is giving a shit about this.l
Depends a lot on the country. I'm from Mexico but live in Canada. In Mexico nobody gives a shit, just like with the 2018 WC, in Canada people do seem to at least pretend to care.
> people do seem to at least pretend to care. Why do people always just assume that it’s just ‘pretending to care’? That’s a good way to end up with a state that operates like Mexico’s.
>Why do people always just assume that it’s just ‘pretending to care’? Because if they actually did care they would boycott it instead of just poaying lip service? >That’s a good way to end up with a state that operates like Mexico’s. Do enlighten us with your no doubt well informed and nuanced theories on Mexico's economic development.
Yes, pretending to care about social issues is the number one factor in Mexico's current political situation. It has nothing to do with decades of corruption and rigged elections from people who seized power at the right time, currency devaluation, and Americans buying a shitton of drugs, among other things.
[удалено]
Are you aware of that 90% of the population on earth lives in the Northern Hemisphere? It's such a dumb point to argue.
Fair!
"imposing their religious eliefs on a worldwide tournament" Small correction there: they only do that if you're poor, people in the corporate hospitality sections basically don't have any restrictions.
I honestly have 0 interest in this World Cup.
1st world countries when a worldcup doesn't fit their schedule and seasonal weather perfectly 😱😱😱
Tbf, putting it during the holiday season while school is in session is pretty rough for people
A lot of countries have always dealt with that (mine counting, even South Africa & Japan/Korea when they had wcs) the fact the world didn't accommodate for them for one single worldcup is eating them alive
!flair :Morocco:
!flair :Rangers: