Excitement for next summer’s World Cup hosted in the United States, Canada, and Mexico is palpable. But for those that see this summer’s FIFA Club World Cup as a dry run for next year’s main event, concerns over weather have become a key storyline.
No more was that on display than during Saturday’s match between Chelsea and Benfica in Charlotte, North Carolina. The game, in which Chelsea took a 1-0 lead into the 86th minute before the referee suspended play for a severe thunderstorm, turned into an hours-long slog. After waiting nearly two hours to complete the remaining four minutes of the game, Benfica equalized on a controversial handball inside the penalty box, converting from the spot and sending the match into extra time.
There, it was all Chelsea. The English side won by a scoreline of 4-1, but manager Enzo Maresca was sure to sound the alarm about the possibilities of severe weather impacting next year’s World Cup.
“For 85 minutes we were in control of the game,” Maresca said. “We didn’t concede nothing, we created chances enough to win the game. And then after the break, the game changed completely. I think for me personally it’s not football.
“It’s already seven, eight, nine games that they suspended. I think it’s a joke to be honest, it’s not football. It’s not for us. I can understand that for security reasons, you are to suspend the game. But if you suspend seven, eight games that means that probably is not the right place to do this competition.”
Unfortunately for FIFA, they cannot control the weather. What they can control, however, is how these situations are handled in the future.
Out of the 16 stadiums set to host World Cup games next year, just five have roofs. That’s 11 sites that could potentially be impacted by severe weather during peak season for storms in much of North America. A World Cup in which teams were subjected to lengthy delays would assuredly spark controversy.
No doubt, FIFA have seen this run of match suspensions in the Club World Cup and are thinking about how to standardize practices for next year’s event. Quite honestly, much of the reason FIFA held the Club World Cup in the United States this year was to get ahead of situations like this.
About Drew Lerner
Drew Lerner is a staff writer for Awful Announcing and an aspiring cable subscriber. He previously covered sports media for Sports Media Watch. Future beat writer for the Oasis reunion tour.