World Cup: The reason Wales vs England and Iran vs USA are on at the same time

Millions of eyes will be glued to television screens this evening as the World Cup tournament sees Wales face a crucial meeting against England, with an equally important game taking place at the same time.

Wales has seen mixed fortunes in this tournament after drawing 1-1 in their first game of the USA, and then losing in the dying minutes to Iran by two goals.

They have one final opportunity to keep their place and progress to the final 16 when they face group rivals England at 7pm this evening in Doha.

In simple terms, Wales must get a win against England.

However, much lies also on the result of Iran vs USA which Wales fans will be watching closely.

A lesser known fact is the reason why both games are being shown at 7pm.

From today onwards, matches played by teams of the same group will kick-off at the same time following an incident which dates back 40 years.

The final round of these fixtures have been played at the same time since 1986 following the infamous 'Disgrace of Gijon' which was played between West Germany and Austria four years before.

• What was the Disgrace of Gijon?

The infamous game happened in Gijon Spain on 25 June 1982. It was the last game of the group which saw Algeria and Chile play the day before.

With the 3-2 result already known, it allowed West Germany and Austria to figure out what would need to happen in their game to qualify.

A win by one or two goals for West Germany would see in both teams make it through instead of Algeria.

The Germans scored the one goal within the first 10 minutes of the match, which saw the rest of the game come to a near-enough standstill in the second half.

Both teams were accused of fixing the result, but FIFA decided that neither team had broken any rules.

However, it did lead to them revising the kick-off times to ensure no team had an advantage over the other.