The biggest football extravaganza, the FIFA World Cup, is right at the door as four dozen of teams flock to the USA, Mexico and Canada to fight for the ultimate glory. The tournament has been expanded to 48 nations for the first-ever time with an unprecedented 104 matches lined up across 16 cities.ย
Argentina are the defending champions of the sporting extravaganza, having won their third World Cup and first for the legendary Lionel Messi. They enter the tournament as one of the strong contenders to repeat their heroics from Qatar four years back. Several others are also tipped to go a long way in the tournament and even win the coveted trophy, with Spain, France, England and Brazil being some of them.ย
When will FIFA World Cup begin?
The FIFA World Cup will begin on June 11, June 12 as per IST. The opening ceremony will take place a couple of hours before the start of the first match between co-hosts Mexico and South Africa. The opening ceremony will not be held only in a single city this time around. It will be an interconnected event across Mexico, Canada and the USA.
The first ceremony will take place in Mexico ahead of their opener against South Africa. The ceremony will begin at 10:30 PM IST, two hours before the start of the opener. The second ceremony will take place in Canada on June 12 at 11 PM IST, before the start of Canada’s opener against Bosnia and Herzegovina. The third one will be held in the USA, starting at 5 AM IST on June 13, one hour before the US kick their campaign off against Paraguay.
Who will be performing at the ceremonies?
The opening ceremonies will mark the performances of some star performers. The Mexico ceremony will be held at the Estadio Azteca as Shakira will headline the celebrations, where she will perform “Dai Dai,” the official anthem of the World Cup, with Nigeria’s Burna Boy. J Balvin, Colombian singer and South African artist Tyla, will also be in attendance.
The Canada leg will also feature some of the big names, with Bollywood actor Nora Fatehi also part of the ceremony. She will be joined by Alanis Morissette, Alessia Cara, Michael Bublรฉ, Jessie Reyez, Elyanna, Vegedream, William Prince and Sanjoy. The US leg is expected to feature a Hollywood-style opening ceremony.
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