I’m a guy who likes to plan things.

For example, I can tell you what I’m giving as gifts for the next 10 Christmases.

I can tell you what I’m eating for lunch on a Tuesday three weeks from now.

I can tell you what I’m wearing to my son’s high school graduation, college graduation, and wedding.

He’s 11, by the way.

So when I heard that UEFA, organizing body of the competition known simply as “Champions League” was moving the time of its final match from local time 9 p.m. to local time 6 p.m. (that’s time in Budapest) I was intrigued.

This is a soccer match nine months from now, by the way.

UEFA said the new time is “better for families and children to attend and watch on television, use public transport after the game, and for fans to party post-match in host cities.”

Bwahahaha!

Football Supporters Europe executive director Ronan Evain says, “An earlier kickoff makes day trips more feasible, reduces travel stress and allows fans to enjoy the occasion without worrying about late-night logistics.”

This is the used car salesman telling you what a great deal you’re getting. He’s not worried about himself, just about your happiness.

And soccer fans in Asia, because this is the real reason the game is starting earlier.

Funny thing about the people who decide when to play these games… they want people watching them so they can sell advertising. Believe it or not it’s a business; they are not doing this for fun or to satisfy some moral obligation.

You may have done the math and thought, hmm, that’s weird, 6:00 in the evening in Budapest is like 9:00 in the morning in Hollywood. Why the heck would you start a game then?

Because while Hollywood types are enjoying their avocado toast and not watching soccer, people in India are tuning in. It’s 8:00 at night there, and it happens to be the newly-crowned most populous nation on Earth.

Keep expecting those times to roll backwards, or rather move eastward with the fanbase.

Following the money.