World Cup heat: Fifa should consider 9am start for final, says expert

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Extreme weather during the Club World Cup in the United States this summer means Fifa should think about playing the men's World Cup final at 9am next year, according to an expert.

Professor Mike Tipton of Portsmouth University, a leading specialist on the effect of extreme temperature on the human body, was asked by BBC Sport how football's governing body should handle a heatwave at next year's tournament.

Like many, Tipton has been struck by the brutal conditions that players have been exposed to in some matches at the Club World Cup in the US, and which have underlined the potential threat facing Fifa's 2026 showpiece when it returns to the same country at the same time of year.

Last week saw the summer's first major heatwave descend on eastern North America, with dozens of people hospitalised for heat-related illnesses. In New York on 24 June, for instance, the temperature rocketed to 39C - a record for June.

The MetLife Stadium just outside the city is due to stage eight matches at the World Cup, including the final itself. Like most of the other venues across the US, Canada and Mexico, it has no roof and there is limited shade for those inside.

Kick-off times for all fixtures will only be revealed after December's draw, but insiders told BBC Sport they expect matches in the eastern time zone to start at noon, 15:00, 18:00 and 21:00 local time - with all-important European audiences and the interests of broadcasters, advertisers and sponsors in mind.

Tipton - who works with Team GB athletes including triathlete Jonny Brownlee since his collapse from heat exhaustion in Mexico in 2016 - argues that if there is a repeat of the conditions seen over the past 10 days, rescheduling to a morning slot would be the best and safest solution, even for the World Cup final.

"I'd move it to an air-conditioned stadium with a roof, and preferably to a cooler time of the year," he said.

"But we're already stuck with this, so the only thing you can do is go to a cooler time of day. From a thermal-physiological perspective, for both health and performance reasons, I'd be looking to start games as early as possible - but I understand the logistical caveats," he added, acknowledging the task of getting tens of thousands of fans inside a stadium so early in the day.

"The health risks are not purely to the players, it's also the officials and spectators, many of whom are much, much less fit. If you continue in conditions when all the rational scientific data says 'stop', organisers are taking on a fair amount of responsibility. What would probably happen is the game would be changed radically.

"Fifa should be thinking about where, when and how they play such games. It's not beyond the realms that matches have to go to quarters rather than halves."

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