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Europeans Worried About the “Heat” Ahead of 2026 World Cup
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ESPN’s Mark Ogden has the byline on a Thursday story titled “Is the U.S. too hot to handle the 2026 FIFA Men’s World Cup?” Some snippets:
NEW YORK — With less than a year to go until the U.S. co-hosts the tournament with Mexico and Canada, the heat and humidity experienced by teams at the Club World Cup has set alarm bells ringing within the game that it might just be a case of wrong place and wrong time for a summer tournament in North America.
High-profile players and coaches, senior figures at global players’ union FIFPRO, and climate experts have all raised concerns about the risks and even dangers that will accompany next year’s 48-team World Cup, which will be staged at the height of summer between June 11 and July 19.
First things first, before we go any further, there have been World Cups in North America. The U.S. hosted in 1994 and Mexico hosted twice, in 1970 and 1986. So it’s not like this is the first time FIFA has done this. The article notes, closer to the end, that World Cup games in Brazil and elsewhere have been halted before. Hell, we played Germany in a city smack-dab in the middle of the Amazon rainforest 11 years ago.
Furthermore, Europe just isn’t used to this weather. They play through a mild winter over there. They don’t play in the summer, when temperatures in places like Madrid and Rome regularly get into the 90s. When you go to the UK in particular, you will be surprised to learn that they don’t even have air conditioning in about 95% of houses and buildings, because it just doesn’t get that hot.
Anyway:
According to FIFPRO, three games during the Club World Cup — Paris Saint-Germain vs. Atletico Madrid in Pasadena, California; Chelsea against Esperance in Philadelphia; and Benfica vs. Bayern Munich in Charlotte, North Carolina — should have been suspended or even postponed because conditions went beyond their threshold of 28 degrees Celsius (82.4 degrees Fahrenheit) on the Wet Bulb Globe Temperature gauge (WBGT). (The gauge is a measure of heat stress in direct sunlight, accounting for air temperature, humidity, wind speed, sun angle, and cloud cover.)
82.4 degrees on the WBGT gauge is nothing. Americans regularly play all kinds of sports outside in those conditions.
More:
FIFA’s WBGT threshold is 32 degrees C (89.6 degrees F), at which point they allow for one cooling/drinks break halfway through each half while MLS sets its threshold at 29 (84.2). (For the Club World Cup, FIFA have allowed one cooling break midway through each half, regardless of that WBGT threshold.)
“I don’t think I have ever played in such heat,” Benfica forward Andreas Schjelderup said after playing against Bayern Munich in Group C on June 24, when the WBGT hit 29.2 (85). “I don’t think it’s healthy, to be honest, but I managed to get through it.”
Yeah look, this isn’t difficult to solve. You have a hydration break in each half, and you play the games in the morning or evening. If shouldn’t take the moving of heaven and Earth to schedule a 10 a.m. game, then a 5 p.m., 7 p.m., and 9 p.m. for the group stages. No one is going to fall over and die if the games are played at those times. The problem for the Europeans is that if you’re starting a game at 9 p.m. here, it’s 2 a.m. over there, or worse, so it kind of sucks in that regard, but North and South Americans were watching the 2002 World Cup at the ass crack of dawn, so it is what it is. The tournament moves around. It is, after all, the World Cup.
Would you rather have to do it on a cold night in Stoke, or a humid night in New Jersey? Take your pick.
Kevin has been writing about Philadelphia sports since 2009. He spent seven years in the CBS 3 sports department and started with the Union during the team's 2010 inaugural season. He went to the academic powerhouses of Boyertown High School and West Virginia University. email - k.kinkead@sportradar.com