The FIFA have been urged to scrap the “high-risk” kickoff times at the World Cup next year.
‘THE SUN’ stated that soaring temperatures in several North American Cities have led to adverse weather conditions and delays at the Club World Cup.
The 2026 FIFA World Cup™, marketed as FIFA World Cup 26™, will be the 23rd FIFA World Cup™, the quadrennial international Men’s soccer championship contested by the national teams of the member associations of FIFA. The tournament will take place from June 11th– July 19th, 2026. It will be jointly hosted by 16 Cities in three North American countries, the main host country of matches is the United States while Canada and Mexico will be the auxiliary hosts. The tournament will be the first to be hosted by three nations.
The 2025 FIFA Club World Cup™ is the 21st edition and the first of the expanded FIFA Club World Cup™, an international club soccer competition organized by FIFA. The tournament is being played in the United States and got off to a start from June 14th and will conclude on July 13th.
‘THE SUN’ further stated that there is now growing concern for the players’ safety with water breaks deemed insufficient by some experts.
The FifPro, a global players’ union that represents more than 70,000 pros, has called for changes to be made at the World Cup.
The Fédération Internationale des Associations de Footballeurs Professionnels, generally referred to as FifPro, is the worldwide representative organization for 65,000 professional footballers. The FifPro, with its global headquarters in Hoofddorp, Netherlands, is made up of 66 national players’ associations.
They want midday and afternoon matches scrapped in “extremely high-risk” Cities such as Miami, Monterrey (Mexico) and Kansas City.
Boston, Philadelphia and Guadalajara (Mexico) have been deemed “very high-risk” while Los Angeles and New York/New Jersey are “high-risk”.
The FifPro Director of Policy Alexander Bielefeld said the issues at the Club World Cup has to be a “wake-up call” for FIFA and calls have been made to move matches to a later kickoff time.
FifPro’s Medical Director Dr. Vincent Gouttebarge outlined the potential health risks involved in playing in extreme heat – “From our research a couple of Cities and some matches on the ongoing Club World Cup can be labeled as having a higher risk for heat-related illness, or, in the worst case, extreme high risk for heat-related illness. There are certain areas in a country that will be more at risk. So, think about match destinations such as Orlando, or Miami, for example, where you can see over a period of years that there’s a higher risk attached to these venues and destinations. The question is if we look at match scheduling and match planning ahead of the tournament, if we actually need midday kickoff times in these locations or in these high-risk areas – if we should probably move towards late kickoff times as a preferences for these venues.”
One expert, Professor Mike Tipton of the University of Portsmouth, England (UK), a leading specialist on the effect of extreme temperature on the human body, has called for next year’s World Cup Final to be played at 9 am.
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