{"id":109996,"date":"2026-06-01T12:57:13","date_gmt":"2026-06-01T16:57:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/?p=109996"},"modified":"2026-06-01T17:58:59","modified_gmt":"2026-06-01T21:58:59","slug":"opinion-toby-mundel-and-samuel-penna-wanner-discuss-plans-to-tackle-extreme-heat-during-the-world-cup","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/2026\/06\/opinion-toby-mundel-and-samuel-penna-wanner-discuss-plans-to-tackle-extreme-heat-during-the-world-cup\/","title":{"rendered":"Opinion: Toby M\u00fcndel and Samuel Penna Wanner discuss plans to tackle extreme heat during the World Cup"},"content":{"rendered":"

This piece written by Toby M\u00fcndel, Professor of Kinesiology at Brock University, and Samuel Penna Wanner, Associate Professor of Physical Education at Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais,<\/em>\u00a0originally appeared in The Conversation<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

The\u00a0most watched sporting event in the world\u00a0kicks off on June 11 co-hosted by Canada, Mexico and the United States. With 2026 already expected to be\u00a0one of the hottest years on record,\u00a0experts\u00a0and\u00a0players\u00a0have warned that organizer FIFA is not doing enough to protect the players from extreme heat.<\/p>\n

Our new research\u00a0shows the heat stress players may face could negatively affect their performance and pose a threat to their health.<\/p>\n

Many of the players representing their country at this year\u2019s FIFA World Cup were on show at the\u00a02025 FIFA Club World Cup, where the 32\u00a0best club teams\u00a0from six continents faced each other.<\/p>\n

Matches were played at the same spring-summer transition as this year\u2019s tournament (June-July) and at several of the\u00a0same venues\u00a0that will be used. Therefore, this tournament served as a great case study to identify likely challenges and possible solutions.<\/p>\n

We used FIFA\u2019s own\u00a0technical reports\u00a0to identify player performance \u2014 low- to high-speed running and total distance covered per player \u2014 and\u00a0publicly available data\u00a0for environmental conditions (e.g. air temperature and humidity, solar radiation and wind speed).<\/p>\n

Of the 63 matches played, we analyzed data from 57, ignoring the six matches played inside\u00a0Atlanta Stadium\u00a0due to the closed roof and air conditioning keeping it a comfortable 22 C.<\/p>\n

How hot is too hot to play soccer?<\/strong><\/p>\n

The FIFA\u00a0heat guidelines\u00a0are used as default policy to protect player health. Like many sports organizations, FIFA uses the\u00a0Wet Bulb Globe Temperature\u00a0(WBGT) to calculate heat stress. This measure accounts for air temperature, radiant heat from sunshine, and the cooling effect of evaporation and air movement.<\/p>\n

FIFA\u2019s guidelines use a WBGT \u201cnear, at or above 32 C\u201d to define an extreme risk of heat illness, where cooling breaks become mandatory or the match may be postponed or cancelled.<\/p>\n

Of the 57 matches during the 2025 FIFA Club World Cup, 31 (54 per cent) were played at a WBGT of 28 C or higher. Thirteen of these matches were played at 30 C or higher and two were played at 32 C or higher. According to experts from the\u00a0American College of Sports Medicine, these 31 matches should have been cancelled.<\/p>\n

In other words, players were more often than not exposed to extreme risk of heat illness.<\/p>\n

Spare a thought for the spectators, too, as they arrive early, watch the match and then leave later without air conditioning. A heat wave for central and eastern U.S. meant that more than 100 million people across 726 counties experienced\u00a0record daily maximum temperatures\u00a0from June 22 to 25, 2025.<\/p>\n

Heat and player performance<\/strong><\/p>\n

We used statistical modelling to assess how environmental conditions affect high-speed (20\u201325 m\/h), moderate-speed (15\u201320 km\/h) and low-speed (0\u201315 km\/h) running, as well as total distance covered during the matches.<\/p>\n

We found that the higher the WBGT or ambient temperature, the lower the distances covered by players at all speeds, whereas higher ambient humidity reduced high-speed running only.<\/p>\n

Players running slower and less distance can be explained by the heat increasing their\u00a0deep body and muscle temperatures. They choose to slow down (pacing) in order to avoid a heat injury or illness. It also explains why in the heat, players and teams choose a\u00a0possession-oriented\u00a0over a\u00a0transition-based\u00a0style of play.<\/p>\n

Time of day, player position and age<\/strong><\/p>\n

Thirty-three matches (58 per cent) were played in the afternoon (5 p.m. or earlier). The remaining 24 matches (42 per cent) were played in the evening (6 p.m. or later).<\/p>\n

Players ran longer distances in the evening than in the afternoon, with the simple explanation that matches were played under lower levels of heat stress. Ambient temperature and humidity, solar radiation and WBGT were all lower in the evening than in the afternoon.<\/p>\n

Player position and age were important factors determining performance irrespective of heat stress. Defenders ran lowest distances, midfielders ran greatest distances and attackers ran the greatest distances at high speeds. The older the player was, the less distance he covered at all speeds.<\/p>\n

What should FIFA do with this data?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Matches should not be scheduled for the afternoon when WBGT and ambient temperatures are highest. This should not be a problem for FIFA, which\u00a0moved the last World Cup\u00a0to winter (November-December) to avoid Qatar\u2019s extreme summer heat. However, FIFA\u2019s scheduling reflects their attempt at balancing\u00a0playing conditions for player health\u00a0against\u00a0lucrative broadcasting windows.<\/p>\n

Alternatively, FIFA could use stadiums with a closed roof and air conditioning. Seven of the eight stadiums at the 2022 World Cup\u00a0used air conditioning.<\/p>\n

Although FIFA has introduced a mandatory\u00a0three-minute hydration break\u00a0midway through each game\u2019s half, ensuring drinks are cold and adding cold towels would\u00a0improve effectiveness at half-time.<\/p>\n

Coaches should also be aware of environmental conditions and adapt their game plan to the expected conditions. For example, when it is hot, players should select a possession-oriented style of play more, employ a high-pressure strategy (to recover the ball) less and make more early substitutions during the match.
\n\"The<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Toby M\u00fcndel, Professor of Kinesiology at Brock University, and Samuel Penna Wanner, Associate Professor of Physical Education at Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais, recently published a piece in The Conversation about why FIFA needs to do more to protect players from extreme heat during the upcoming FIFA World Cup 2026. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":109999,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[36,6],"tags":[996,7488,5512,12851],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/109996"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=109996"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/109996\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":110002,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/109996\/revisions\/110002"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/109999"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=109996"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=109996"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=109996"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}