Only five minutes and stoppage time remained when the Slovenian referee Slavko Vincic hurriedly signalled the match to stop. To the petrified Chelsea and Benfica players, locked in an intensely scruffy round-of-16 game, he pointed his index finger and head skywards, where dark and sombre clouds were rolling in over the Bank of America Stadium in Charlotte.
The players, especially those of Chelsea, leading 1-0, protested. They were used to rain and snow, sun and storm in EPL’s ten-month grind. The referee wouldn’t budge, as there was a high-grade thunderstorm brewing in the horizon, and the players reluctantly retreated to the dressing room. The screen inside the ground blinked with the message: “Seek cover protocol. Severe weather in the area. Seek cover.”
The storm passed, half of the spectators spilled out, and the players returned. By then, 113 minutes had ticked by. When the game ended, a red card, extra time and feverish goal celebrations stretching the time, the players, referees, officials and some of the spectators had spent four hours and 38 minutes on the ground. When the final whistle blew, Chelsea winning 4-1, the London club’s manager Enzo Maresca stormed off the pitch, his troops staggering behind him. He vented out all his rage in the press conference room. “Guys, it’s not football. You suspend the game, it’s not football. It’s completely something different,” he said, fuming.
“It’s not normal to suspend a game. In a World Cup, how many games are suspended? Zero, probably. In Europe, how many games? Zero,” he raged on, before detailing the practical difficulties of sitting through a two-hour break, waiting for the game to resume, when all it required were five and sundry minutes to wrap up the game.
Worryingly, it was not the first game a thunderstorm had interrupted nor the longest a team had to wait for restart. It was the sixth match in the tournament and the longest weather delay came during Benfica’s 6-0 rout of Auckland City in Orlando when the game was suspended for two hours. Worse, intermittent thunderstorms are frequent in these neck of woods in June and July and could be a recurring feature in next year’s FIFA World Cup. Last year, weather wreaked havoc in the T20 World Cup, in June-July, when a hurricane blew in Florida and washed off the games.
Players walk off the field for a weather delay during the Club World Cup round of 16 match between Benfica and Chelsea in Charlotte. (AP)
US-based meteorologists fear harsh weather to prevail in next year’s expanded World Cup. Ben Schott, a member of the National Weather Service who advises FIFA and the 2026 World Cup team, told AFP recently: “What we’re seeing right now is not unusual, even though we’re setting records. Most of the eastern United States is breaking records, and that happens almost every summer. So something similar is expected next year, and those planning to attend the matches should be prepared.”
Though thunderstorms have not resulted in fatalities yet, a teenager miraculously survived one near the MetLife Stadium in New York, which would host the World Cup final, last week. Only four of the World Cup Stadiums have retractable roofs, making the players and audience hostage to extreme weather conditions.
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A bigger worry is the scorching heatwave. One of the most enduring and unusual images of the Club World Cup has been that of the Borussia Dortmund bench watching the first half of their match against South Africa’s Mamelodi Sundowns from inside the locker room. The temperature that afternoon had touched 36 degree Celsius (with a real feel of 39). “Our subs watched the first half from inside the locker room to avoid the blazing sun — never seen that before, but in this heat, it absolutely makes sense,” the club’s official handle posted on Twitter.
The players and managers too are feeling the heat, not to discount spectators and referees. Real Madrid manager Xabi Alonso was spotted with an ice towel on his neck during the 1 pm practice session at their training base in Miami. Real Madrid trained in heated tents. Heat lamps were placed inside so that the players got used to the sweltering rays of the sun. Even players raised in the US can’t help cursing the heat. “I only played a half, and it was like I was dying out there. It was really hot,” said Juventus and USA forward Timothy Weah. PSG’s Brazilian said he could neither step up nor slow down because he couldn’t process what was going on. At last year’s Copa América in the US, an assistant referee collapsed during a match played in the stifling heat of Kansas City.
Kick off timings have not helped. As many as 15 games started at 12 pm; 16 at 3 pm. Only 15 games were scheduled after 7 pm, when it is much cooler. Alarmingly, noon and afternoon starts could be the norm in the World Cup too, to suit the prime television time in Europe. It was the story of the 1994 World Cup, the last time the country hosted the tournament. The final, between Italy and Brazil at Pasadena, in California, was played in 38 degree Celsius. “It will be a handicap for soccer in general,” Italian coach Arrigo Sacchi said before the game. European teams feared the climate would furnish undue advantage to teams from the Americans, even though it was presumptuous as seven of the eight quarter finalists were from Europe. But heat has not had a direct bearing on the result. Atlanta Stadium, where Inter Miami stunned Porto, is an indoor facility. Botafogo shocked Paris Saint-Germain in a late match. In the same stadium Mexican side Monterrey held against Inter Milan. The only upset that could be attributed to weather is Brazil’s Flamengo toppling Chelsea.
The weather, according to meteorologists and researchers, would be no different during the World Cup. A research paper published in the The International Journal of Biometeorology in January projects that nine of the 16 venues will experience a wet bulb globe temperature (a metric that combines the effects of the air temperature, humidity, solar radiation and wind speed) above the accepted safety threshold of 28C and soar to 32-33C through most of the tournament. The highest corresponding number during the Qatar World Cup was 23C, which itself was considered unbearable by European teams. And unlike in Qatar, which happened mid-season, players would reach the Americas already fatigued by the league labours. Add heat and thunderstorms, delays and suspensions, and quite a few managers would repeat the words of Maresca.
