FIFA set to be ‘more flexible’ with kick-off times at 2026 World Cup over heat issues

FIFA is likely to be more “flexible” over kick-off times for next summer’s World Cup because of the impact of extreme heat on the ongoing Club World Cup, the general secretary of the world players’ union FIFPRO has said.

The searing summer temperatures in the United States for FIFA’s inaugural 32-team Club World Cup have been one of the tournament’s major talking points.

Chelsea struggled to train at times during high temperatures in Philadelphia, while Bayern Munich and Benfica played a group match in Charlotte in 36 degrees Celsius.

FIFPRO general secretary Alex Phillips said his organisation had made recommendations around kick-off times prior to the Club World Cup which were not heeded by FIFA.

The union will make a similar plea to avoid afternoon kick-off times in the hottest locations like Miami and Dallas at next summer’s World Cup, and hopes the experience of this summer may make that conversation more straightforward.

“We have no veto (over scheduling),” Phillips said.

“That ultimately may come at some point in the future, like the US sports’ players’ unions have veto rights on issues such as health and safety, calendar (and) employment-related issues.

“I think based on this experience (of the Club World Cup), (FIFA) is likely to be more flexible, but we have absolutely no power to force them to.

“We can only use informal pressure and good argumentation. So we don’t really have any coercive right.

“(FIFA) have actually modified how they’ve been dealing with heat during the matches (at the Club World Cup) based on FIFPRO input, which is credit to the work of the (FIFPRO) team.

“Obviously, it would have been better if that had happened in advance, but it’s better that they have adapted and they’ve put in place various different mitigation measures. There’s additional water around the pitch, towels and so on.”

FIFPRO believes the FIFA threshold for rescheduling or postponing matches due to heat stress should be lowered.

The union says matches should always be rescheduled or postponed where the ‘wet bulb globe temperature’ (WBGT), which uses various factors to measure heat stress, exceeds 32 degrees Celsius.

At the moment, exceeding that level only triggers cooling breaks at 30 minutes and 75 minutes under FIFA’s current policy, with delays and postponements to matches at the discretion of the competition organisers. FIFPRO says cooling breaks should be mandatory where WBGT is between 28 and 32 degrees.

FIFPRO medical director Dr Vincent Gouttebarge said his organisation is also working with the national players’ union in Portugal to pilot 20-minute half-time breaks to see whether they provide better protection to players in extreme heat.