WASHINGTON, D.C. — Long after President Donald Trump and the Village People stopped dancing, as glitz subsided and most of the soccer world slept, more than a dozen FIFA executives huddled inside the Kennedy Center’s River Pavilion and built the most complex World Cup schedule ever.
They began “the minute the last team was drawn” at Friday’s World Cup draw, chief tournament officer Manolo Zubiria said, and ended sometime after 4 a.m..
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They sat at tables strewn with Smartwaters and Topo Chicos, their eyes bouncing between several different screens, their brains buried in grids and spreadsheets.
As of around 2 p.m. Friday, they had 72 group-stage matchups but only 18 match locations and zero kickoff times.
By Saturday morning, they needed to place all 72 games in 16 cities across four time zones; and place four or six per day in unique broadcast windows that satisfied viewers worldwide but attracted local fans and avoided searing afternoon heat.
So, they quickly got to work. Zubiria, at times, stood at the head of the room in front of four big screens, flanked by two smaller ones that displayed the World Cup’s 12 freshly minted groups.
The Kennedy Center’s River Pavilion was the venue for the key strategy meeting (FIFA)
At a front table was Heimo Schirgi, FIFA’s World Cup chief operating officer.
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