According to British media reports, only the Netherlands vs. Japan match kicked off on time among the first 10 matches of this FIFA World Cup, with all others experiencing delays.

According to the British media, the latest kick-off so far was for the opening match between Mexico and South Africa, which was delayed by a full 6 minutes.

Delays for other matches were as follows: Qatar vs. Switzerland (delayed by 4 minutes 53 seconds), Brazil vs. Morocco (delayed by 4 minutes 27 seconds), Haiti vs. Scotland (delayed by 2 minutes 42 seconds), Canada vs. Bosnia and Herzegovina (delayed by 2 minutes 22 seconds), and USA vs. Paraguay (delayed by 2 minutes 19 seconds). Two of the eight matches had delays of less than 1 minute: South Korea vs. Czech Republic (delayed by 51 seconds) and Australia vs. Turkey (delayed by 40 seconds).

Although FIFA has established strict pre-match protocol guidelines, these delays may not affect the players, but they could displease the audience. In addition to delays in pre-match preparations – such as players from Haiti and Scotland emerging from the tunnel 90 seconds late – the new national anthem procedure is also a reason for the delayed kick-offs.

The new procedure requires 26 players from each team to sing the national anthem in the center of the field, which undoubtedly increases the complexity of logistics and thus leads to additional time consumption. However, as the tournament progresses, the process operation is expected to become smoother, and this delay problem is expected to gradually disappear.