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IGLS, Austria — Soccer's World Cup forced the cancellation of a luge World Cup.
The International Luge Federation said Monday that what was scheduled as the opening weekend of its World Cup season — Nov. 26 and Nov. 27 in Igls, Austria — has been called off.
The reason: The FIFA World Cup was taking up too much of the available television schedule, and that meant the luge events wouldn't be able to be aired live in Europe.
Luge's World Cup is now set to begin on the weekend of Dec. 2, a previously scheduled race weekend also in Igls. The group stages of the FIFA World Cup will be completed by then, and fewer matches in Qatar each day opened more potential television windows for luge.
FIFA's World Cup begins Nov. 21 and has four matches daily from that date through Dec. 2. The schedule begins to lighten starting with the knockout stage that begins Dec. 3, with no more than two matches on any day.
Luge officials said they intend to reschedule the November race and have nine World Cup weekends, as originally planned.
There are two North American stops on the schedule as of now: a Dec. 9-11 race weekend in Whistler, Canada, and a Dec. 15-17 race weekend in Park City, Utah.
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