World Cup Faces Extreme Heat Challenges as Players' Safety at Risk
The World Cup promised a festival of football across the US, Mexico and Canada. It has begun as something else as well: a live experiment in how far elite athletes – and everyone around them – can be pushed in brutal summer heat.
A Guardian analysis of the first round of group matches – 24 games, each team’s opener – shows that two fixtures were played in conditions that a leading players’ union has previously said should trigger delay or postponement. Four more were staged in cities where the heat exceeded that same red line, with only stadium air conditioning keeping conditions on the pitch within safer limits.
The numbers are stark. The football is being played on the edge.
Saudi Arabia v Uruguay tops the danger list
The most extreme conditions so far came in Miami, where Saudi Arabia faced Uruguay. Even with an evening kick-off, the wet-bulb temperature – a key measure of heat stress – hit 28C (82F) or higher.
Sweden v Tunisia in Monterrey, also an evening game, ranked second among matches played in stadiums without air conditioning.
That 28C mark is not a trivial threshold. Fifpro, the global players’ union, has previously argued that games at or above that level should be delayed or postponed. Asked about the findings, the union declined to comment on the specific situation at this World Cup, which is forecast to be the hottest since the tournament began in 1930.
Wet-bulb temperature blends air temperature, humidity and cloud cover into a single figure that reflects what the human body actually feels. At high readings, sweat no longer evaporates effectively. The body’s cooling system fails. Overheating can come quickly, and with it the risk of serious illness or death.
To assess the opening round, the Guardian drew on weather data from US and UK government agencies and calculated wet-bulb values using a formula already employed by authorities in countries including Australia and Canada.
The picture that emerges is of a tournament constantly jostling with the limits of safe play.
Six matches over the union’s red line
In total, six of the first 24 matches took place in locations where wet-bulb temperatures hit 28C or above: Germany v Curacao in Houston, Saudi Arabia v Uruguay in Miami, Portugal v DR Congo in Houston, the Netherlands v Japan in Dallas, and England v Croatia, also in Dallas. Houston’s stadium, like Dallas, has air conditioning, which helped drag the on-field conditions back from the worst of the outside heat.
The England–Croatia game in Dallas on Wednesday underlined how tight the margins have become. Outside, the wet-bulb temperature climbed towards 35C (95F), the fiercest yet. Inside, the stadium’s air conditioning hauled it down to about 22C (71F). Without that system, the fixture would have been played in conditions far beyond what experts consider safe.
Fifa has tried to get ahead of the issue. With a scorching North American summer looming, world football’s governing body shifted some kick-offs later into the day and introduced mandatory water breaks. A handful of the 16 venues have roofs or full air conditioning, softening the worst of the heat for players, if not always for supporters and staff.
Even so, record highs in some host cities have left fans wilting in open concourses and upper tiers with little shade. Stadium workers, many of whom are outdoors for hours before and after kick-off, lugging equipment or staffing concessions, face even greater exposure.
Experts warn current protections are not enough
Current Fifa guidelines call for cooling breaks when matches are played in temperatures of 32C (89F) or above. In practice, referees at this World Cup have been ordering drinks breaks at lower readings. Any delay or suspension of a game, however, remains at the discretion of competition organisers.
On the eve of the tournament, a group of heat and public health specialists urged Fifa in an open letter to go further. They backed Fifpro’s position that fixtures should be postponed if wet-bulb temperatures reach 28C or above, and pushed for more robust protections for everyone in and around the stadiums.
“Temperatures are often taken from shaded areas and if players are in direct sun, it can be double figures more than the temperature readings,” said Robbie Parks, an environmental epidemiologist at Columbia University and one of the signatories. “Standing in the sun can be dangerous even at lower temperatures, even above 23C (73F) or 25C (77F) would make me concerned for older adults out there for more than few minutes.”
For players, Parks acknowledged that air conditioning, later kick-off times and water breaks offer important relief. His concern stretches beyond the pitch.
“Shade is super important and hydration is super important,” he said. “You need to allow people to bring in their own water and think about having misters for evaporative cooling. The final is going to be held in New Jersey, and that stadium isn’t covered which makes me worry. But I’d hope Fifa will learn the best way to deal with that by then.”
Climate crisis shadow over the tournament
The backdrop to all of this is inescapable. Extreme heat is already the deadliest climate-related hazard on the planet, killing more people each year than hurricanes, floods and wildfires combined. This World Cup will add to the problem.
More than 100 matches, hundreds of thousands of air miles, vast temporary infrastructure: according to estimates from Greenly, a global carbon accounting platform, the tournament will generate around 7.8m tonnes of greenhouse gases. That is roughly double the emissions of the previous World Cup in Qatar.
In other words, the event is both suffering from and contributing to the very crisis that is making such conditions more likely.
Fifa’s defence: a tiered plan and real-time monitoring
Fifa insists it is not blind to the risks. A spokesperson said the organisation is “committed to protecting the health and safety of all players, referees, fans, volunteers and staff” and has embedded heat planning deep into the tournament’s logistics.
Meteorologists are stationed at match venues to advise on extreme weather. Planning is coordinated with host city authorities, stadium operators and national agencies. Before the competition began, Fifa agreed what it calls a “tiered mitigation model” for extreme temperatures, with extra measures triggered as conditions worsen.
For players, that means more than just the now-standard hydration breaks. Teams have access to water and electrolyte drinks, ice, cold towels, fans, mist and shaded areas on and around the touchline.
For spectators, the spokesperson said, elevated temperatures prompt stadiums to “activate additional cooling capacity, including shaded areas, misting systems, cooling buses and expanded water distribution”.
A new medical protocol for treating heat exertion has also been rolled out, including the use of cooling bags for the first time at a World Cup. Fifa says it will “continue to monitor conditions in real time, integrating wet bulb globe temperature and heat index surveillance, and stands ready to apply established contingency protocols should extreme weather events occur.”
The question now is whether those contingency plans will be enough if the mercury climbs higher still, and whether football is prepared for a future in which the world’s biggest tournament routinely flirts with the limits of what the human body can bear.
