Italy-England moved forward

By Football Italia staff

FIFA have controversially moved the kick-off time of Italy-England forward by three hours, increasing the risk of heatstroke.

The World Cup match was set to begin on June 14 at 21.00 local time (02.00 UK time), but was today moved to 18.00 (23.00 UK time).

Both teams had hoped to play the later kick-off in order to reduce the temperature in Manaus, as in northern Brazil the heat and humidity can be even more extreme than in the rest of the country.

However, Italian and English television broadcasters put pressure on FIFA, who caved and moved the fixture forward to a more suitable time slot.

It is one of seven different fixtures to have been moved, along with Ivory Coast-Japan (to 22.00 from 19.00 local), Cameroon-Croatia (18.00 from 15.00 local), Spain-Chile (16.00 from 19.00 local), USA-Portugal (18.00 from 15.00 local), Belgium-Russia (13.00 from 19.00 local) and South Korea-Algeria (16.00 from 13.00 local).

Group D is completed by Uruguay and Costa Rica. Click here for the 2014 World Cup fixtures.

Watch Serie A live in the UK on Premier Sports for just £9.99 per month including live LaLiga, Eredivisie, Scottish Cup Football and more. Visit: https://www.premiersports.com/subscribenow