Under normal circumstances, the World Cup draw is the event that every qualified team tunes in for in order to find out their path and schedule. But that won't be the case this time around.

As part of the expanded 48-team World Cup in the U.S., Canada and Mexico, FIFA is electing to change how it approaches the draw. In the event held Friday in Washington D.C., 42 qualified teams and six play-off placeholders will get assigned into the 12 groups. Yet, they won't find out their group stage schedule and stadium assignments on Friday.

That will happen on Saturday ... in a separate live event at noon Eastern Time.

FIFA claimed that it wanted to be able to select a specific schedule after the draw to ease traveling conditions for fans. Via ESPN:

"The match allocation process that follows the draw aims to ensure the best possible conditions for all teams and spectators while, where possible, enabling fans all over the world to watch their teams play live across different time zones."

On Friday, only the USMNT, Mexico and Canada (along with their group members) will know the schedule. The rest of the teams will be playing a 24-hour waiting game.

This article originally appeared on For The Win: When is the World Cup match schedule being revealed?

Reporting by Andrew Joseph, For The Win / For The Win

USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect