World Cup 2014: Roy Hodgson suffers first World Cup defeat
Fifa have bowed to pressure to bring forward England's match in Manaus with Italy
England's kick-off time for their opening World Cup game against Italy in Manaus has been brought forward by three hours against the wishes of the managers. It means the humidity in the Amazon region will be 80 per cent and temperatures will now be in the upper 20s.
In an effort to acclimatise, England will now play two warm-up matches in Miami rather than one in June, but it is still far from ideal preparation for Roy Hodgson.
He has already been told that most locals will support Italy in the game in Manaus in reaction to his criticism of the venue, situated as it is in the Amazon rainforest.
As for the kick-off time, Hodgson had said he was "happy" with it being 9pm, which is 2am British Summer Time, and was confident that "our views will be taken into account".
However, Fifa have gone against his wishes and the game will now start at 11pm for British and Italian TV audiences. That will be 6pm in the Amazon region.
Fifa will support England and Italy in allowing official drinks breaks during the match. though. "I think it's going to be necessary, I really do," said Hodgson before his appeal to Fifa. "We don't want a situation where the fourth official has got to try to stop people taking drinks breaks."
Meanwhile, the next tranche of tickets for the tournament go on sale today but many English fans will be put off by the high cost of accommodation and flights, which one travel agent arranging tours has descrbed as "insane".
Flights from London to Manaus via Lisbon are a minimum £1,600 and Rio to Manaus is £826 return.
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