Complaints of excessive heat have been soaring as much as the temperature itself at the Club World Cup, FIFA boss Gianni Infantino assured that stadiums with roofs will be used to ease concerns over severe weather at the World Cup in 2026. In a media conference at FIFA’s new office in New York, he said: “Every criticism we receive is a source for us to study and analyse what can do better.”
“Of course the heat is an issue. Last year, at the Olympic Games in Paris, games during the day, in all sports, took place in very hot conditions. Cooling breaks are very important and we will see what we can do, but we have stadiums with roofs and we will definitely use these stadiums during the day next year,” he added.
But there are two roadblocks. A) Only four of the stadiums in the US have retractable roofs. B) Many of them are NFL stadiums designed for winter—to retain the heat rather than out. Add the heavy watering of grass laid over the artificial turn and the humidity inside the stadium could rise. So the purpose of hosting games in indoor facilities could turn counterproductive, unless they are air-conditioned as it was in early stages of the Qatar World Cup in 2022.
From more frequent breaks to rescheduling games to suit the weather than broadcast schedules, there has been a war-cry from players to coaches and officials to tame the heat that could potentially affect the marquee event next year. Not just football, baseball too was affected by stifling heat, triggered by a heat dome, which occurs when a large area of high pressure in the upper atmosphere acts as a reservoir that traps heat and humidity. A fortnight ago, Cincinnati Reds’ Elly De La Cruz and Seattle Mariners’ Trent Thornton fell ill.
De La Cruz vomited on the field with two outs in the fourth inning of Cincinnati’s extra-inning loss at the St Louis Cardinals. “I actually watched him. He drank a bunch of water. I mean a bunch,” Reds manager Terry Francona said. “And then he went right out and got rid of it.”
FIFPRO, the global representative organisation for 65,000 professional footballers have been repeatedly requesting FIFA to put commercial ambitions behind for players’ safety. “We clearly believe that from a health and safety perspective, this [extreme heat] is something that must take priority over commercial interests with regards to the safety of the players,” Alexander Bielefeld, director of policy and strategic relations, said on a conference call about extreme heat at the Club World Cup.
“Heat conditions are not happening in a vacuum. The debate on extreme heat is not happening in a vacuum. It’s actually quite foreseeable.” he said.
Story continues below this ad
The organisation has been urging FIFA to lower the temperature at which cooling breaks are mandated to 78.8F on the Wet Bulb Globe Temperature gauge (WBGT) and set a limit at which games are to be delayed or postponed at 82.4F.
Some climatologists want to lower the threshold, taking into account the players’ safety. Christopher Tyler, a reader in Environmental Physiology at the University of Roehampton, recently told The Athletic: “FIFA would argue that it works because they haven’t seen enough medical complications at that temperature or above, but the argument against that is that players are probably slowing down and changing how they are playing, so they’re not getting ill. 32°C/89.6F is high compared to many other sports as a threshold from a safety point of view, but also, it will eventually compromise the quality of the game as well.” he said.
