Image credit: Getty Images. By Tom McCoy. Un journaliste sportif de la BBC. 63 minutes ago. Scotland supporters, who had waited 28 years to see their team at a World Cup, were unlikely to complain about an extra two-and-a-half-minute delay before their match against Haiti kicked off. After celebrating a 1-0 victory – their first at a World Cup since Italia ’90 – the Tartan Army can reflect that good things really do come to those who wait.
However, the late start in the Group C fixture in Massachusetts has continued a clear pattern of tardiness at the 2026 tournament, with none of the first eight matches beginning on schedule. Those games have started an average of three minutes after their official kick-off time.
Thursday’s opener between Mexico and South Africa was the worst offender, beginning six minutes late, while Saturday’s clash between Qatar and Switzerland kicked off nearly five minutes behind schedule. The only matches to start within a minute of the advertised time were Australia against Turkey (40 seconds late) and South Korea versus the Czech Republic (51 seconds late). What causes people to start things late? Although a minute or two might seem insignificant overall, Fifa will view it as something to improve upon, given their painstaking attention to every aspect of pre-match preparations. Every game follows its own precise schedule, distributed to the media, which details exact timings for when teams and officials must gather in the tunnel, walk out onto the pitch, and when national anthems are performed. This schedule allows broadcasters – especially those airing advertisements – to avoid missing important moments before kick-off. For instance, Haiti and Scotland were scheduled to emerge onto the field exactly eight minutes and 40 seconds before the start. However, at that moment the Haitian team was not yet prepared, and the broadcast instead showed them being rushed by a Fifa official. By the time both teams finally left the tunnel, the schedule was already running 90 seconds late. The other matches that have been substantially delayed also saw players arriving on the pitch late. Although the fixtures involving co-hosts Mexico, Canada and the USA were all preceded by opening ceremonies, those had finished well before kick-off and should not have created any issues. One factor that may have contributed, however, is Fifa’s decision to intensify the pre-match pageantry. The whole squad – not just the starting XI – now assembles in the centre circle for the national anthems, accompanied by giant flags unfurled in each half. World football’s governing body says the ceremony creates “a moment of unity, pride and emotion”, but it is also more complicated to organise. As teams, officials and organisers become more accustomed to the routine, the process should become smoother; nevertheless, it is possible that Fifa has slightly underestimated how long it takes.