‘Extremely high risk' – World Cup faces major schedule revamp amid growing concern for player safety
Soaring temperatures in several North American cities have led to adverse
weather
conditions and
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Fifa have been urged to make a change to World Cup scheduling
Credit: Reuters
There is now growing concern for player safety with water breaks deemed insufficient by some experts.
FifPro, a global players union that represents more than 70,000 pros, has called for changes to be made at the World Cup.
They want midday and afternoon matches scrapped in 'extremely high risk' cities such as Miami, Monterrey and Kansas City.
Boston, Philadelphia and Guadalajara have been deemed "very high risk" while
Los Angeles
and New York/New
Jersey
are "high risk".
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FifPro director of policy Alexander Bielefeld said the issues at the Club World Cup has to be a
FifPro's medical director Dr Vincent Gouttebarge outlined the potential
health
risks involved in playing in extreme heat.
He said: 'From our research, a couple of cities and some matches on the ongoing Club World Cup can be labelled as having a higher risk for heat-related illness, or, in the worst case, extreme high risk for heat-related illness.
'There are certain areas in a country that will be more at risk. So think about match destinations such as
Orlando
or Miami, for example, where you can see over a period of years that there's a higher risk attached to these venues and destinations.
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'The question is, if we look at match scheduling and match planning ahead of the tournament, if we actually need midday kick-off times in these locations or in these high-risk areas — if we should probably move towards late kick-off times as a preferences for these venues.'
One expert, Professor Mike Tipton of
Portsmouth
University, a leading specialist on the effect of extreme temperature on the human body, has called for
next
year's World Cup final to be played at 9am.
Chelsea vs Benfica SUSPENDED with just five minutes left as referee takes players off due to severe lightning storm
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