Qatar 2022 is making an impact before a ball has even been kicked, and now half-time interviews with nation head coaches has joined the list of historic firsts for the FIFA World Cup finals.
With 64 matches to decide the greatest team at the highly lucrative tournament, the concept of quickfire interviews during half-time is an option that is decided to increase television viewing figures.
Already it is estimated that there will be a record-breaking television audience of five billion people, which is more than half of the world’s population, focused on the action within the small peninsula from 20 November.
FIFA President Gianni Infantino claimed, at the Qatar World Economic Forum’s session, about the viewers tuning into the World Cup finals: “All these people who follow and pursue the same passion, they all feel the same way and they all know that football has this uniting force.”
The English Premier League recently introduced the rapidfire half-time interviews. Crystal Palace’s Patrick Vieira was the inaugural head coach to be interviewed during the turnaround, when they tackled Arsenal.
Only media rights licensees can undertake these interviews in Qatar, and have to submit a request in advance to the coach to provide half-time insight. These are not compulsory, with brief interviews either at the beginning or end of the half-time break.
Traditionally during the interval, viewers disappear for various reasons to overlook the pundits and replays of the opening 45 minutes.
Coaches will already be under the spotlight at the sport’s showcase event. Whether there will be an incentive, maybe a financial reward, to eat into their half-time team talk to address the broadcast media is unclear.
With Qatar 2022 aiming to be bigger and better than other World Cup finals, the viewing figures are anticipated to dwarf the 3.57 billion who watched the thrills and spills of Russia 2018.
This is the first time that the World Cup finals have been held during the winter, moved from the traditional summer season because of Qatar’s intense desert climate.
Since winning the bid in 2010, Qatar’s World Cup has been notable for becoming the first finals in the Arab world and the Middle East.
The majority of players will only have competed in around half of their domestic matches, which should mean fresher legs than appearing in the summer finals after a gruelling season.
Veterans, such as Argentina’s Lionel Messi and Portugal’s Cristiano Ronaldo, may be able to sign off at the world’s greatest tournament by winning the ultimate prize. FIFA World Cup betting sites all over the world — from Australia and beyond, have included generous odds for both of these legends to top the goalscoring charts and capture the coveted Golden Boot at Qatar 2022.
However, Adidas-designed ball – called Al Rihla (that means the journey in Arabic) – is an unknown quantity. It will be the first to feature connected ball technology, designed to improve the VAR system. The suspension system is placed in the centre of the ball, with the sensor deemed to be unnoticeable to players.
Officials will be guided by the first semi-auto offside technology to appear at the finals. A dozen dedicated tracking cameras will be mounted underneath the stadium roof to track the ball, which will feed offside alerts to the video match officials whenever a player is offside.
A new digital app is going to make this World Cup tournament more numbers driven. This will supply players, and coaches, access to their performance statistics. Each match the numbers will be crunched to showcase key moments for individual players as well as showcase their possession of the ball.
Qatar 2022 was always going to be unique, with their goal to be bigger and better than previous World Cup finals. A shock winner at the sport’s pinnacle tournament would certainly make this must-watch event forever memorable.