None of the first eight matches at the 2026 tournament began on time, and the opening run of fixtures averaged three minutes late. The pattern has already become one of the earliest storylines of the World Cup, with delays ranging from barely noticeable to long enough to change the rhythm of match day.
That matters now because readers are looking for whether the delay problem is a one-off or a feature of these 2026 World Cup fixtures. The opening game between Mexico and South Africa started six minutes late, Qatar and Switzerland were almost five minutes behind schedule, Australia against Turkey was delayed by 40 seconds and South Korea against the Czech Republic began 51 seconds after the official start time. Fans waiting for the first whistle have already seen a tournament that is slipping at the start rather than settling into a clean timetable.
The most drawn-out example came in Scotland’s match with Haiti in Massachusetts. The players were due to take to the field eight minutes and 40 seconds before kick-off, but the Haitian players were not quite ready when they were meant to go out. By the time Haiti and Scotland eventually left the tunnel, they were already 90 seconds behind, and they entered the field nearly two minutes later than scheduled. At Italia '90, Scotland last won a World Cup match before beating Haiti at the 2026 tournament, a reminder that the day carried history as well as delay.
The friction is hard to miss: Fifa plans detailed pre-match running orders for each match, including tunnel assembly, pitch entry and anthem timing, yet the first eight matches still started late. The games involving Mexico, Canada and the USA were all preceded by opening ceremonies, but those ceremonies had all concluded well before kick-off, so they do not explain the repeated slippage on their own. That leaves the repeated late starts as a timing problem inside the match-day routine itself, not just around it.
For now, the clearest reading is that the early part of the tournament has made lateness look normal. If Fifa wants the 2026 World Cup fixtures to feel organised rather than improvised, the next fix has to come from the pre-match sequence that is already running behind.
