Sports
2026 World Cup: FIFPro sounds alarm over ‘extreme’ conditions
In the wake of the Club World Cup, which ran through June and July in the US this year, FIFPro’s director of policy and strategic relations, Alexander Bielefeld, called the tournament “a wake-up call in the context of a warming planet”.
With many of the matches in the club tournament taking place in the middle of the afternoon in the US when temperatures often soar well past 30 °C, FIFPro flagged the “severe challenges to players’ and participants’ safety and health” when playing in extreme conditions.
To combat this, it said “the existing schedule (for the World Cup) and venue selections may need to be reassessed to better safeguard player health, protect fan well-being, and support optimal performance”.
The union also called for longer half-time breaks and more regular cooling breaks.
FIFPro general secretary Alex Philips said “we are having informal discussions (with organisers) about the use of air-conditioned stadiums”, but added “nothing concrete” had arisen from talks.
The report also highlighted the impact of the Club World Cup on players’ workloads following the club season.
Bielefeld said the “timing of the Club World Cup had a very negative impact” on players’ rest periods and their pre-season.
According to the report, no players from the analysed participant clubs reached the minimum 28-day off-season, and many started the current season without the minimum required four-week pre-season and re-training period
Nottingham Forest and New Zealand striker Chris Wood told journalists on a call presenting the report: “For us as players, it’s vitally important that we have the recovery period to go again.”
The 33-year-old added that not having the minimum recovery period was “feasible over one or two seasons, but not for five or six”.
The union also flagged the increasing number of minutes being played by star youngsters such as Barcelona’s Lamine Yamal.
Yamal racked up over 8,000 minutes of playing time for his club and country prior to turning 18, which FIFPro said far surpassed that of previous “generational talents” like Andres Iniesta or Kylian Mbappe.
Chair of FIFPro’s high-performance advisory network, Darren Burgess, said, “players are still growing and maturing until 24-25 years of age, overexposure before then is taking an injury risk”.
Wood added that a balance needed to be struck in finding the right amount of time for teenagers to play.
“When you’re young, you just want to play football. You don’t think about how your body is changing and growing,” he said.
“It’s about finding that balance by educating younger players about the risks.”
The championship will run from today to October 12 at the International Conference Centre, Umuahia. On the ground for the championship are athletes from Brazil, Peru, Egypt, Cameroon, Tunisia, Nigeria, Mauritius and Rwanda. They arrived on Sunday.
Some of the other countries were expected in the Abia State capital yesterday. Speaking on the championship, yesterday, Abia State Commissioner for Youth and Sports Development, Nwobilor Ananaba, said the chief host, Governor Alex Otti, has mobilised facilities and the personnel to ensure a successful event.
Speaking through the Special Assistant to the Governor on Sports, Raymond Chima Ukwa, said: “We have the best mats, playing mats, especially the wheelchair playing mats, which is the first of its kind in West Africa.
“If you go around, you’ll see the hall and the preparation that has been made to ensure that people have an equitable world-class playing field.” Thrilled by Governor Otti’s support for the competition, Badminton Federation of Nigeria (BFN) President, Francis Orbih, said that, besides making all the necessary arrangements that will ensure a successful hosting of the events, “we will have a Para-Badminton workshop for coaches and players.
“Nigeria is doing well, Abia is doing well, and we want to do better to improve on where we are, which is why all these have been put together by Governor Otti.”
Nigeria’s Flying Eagles began their campaign at the 24th FIFA U20 World Cup with a narrow 1–0 loss to Norway on Monday, despite creating several opportunities to level the game.
Norway took the lead in the 9th minute after being awarded a controversial penalty. The Flying Eagles pressed for an equaliser but were denied two penalty claims in the second half.
Kparobo Arierhi came close in the 47th minute when his shot drifted wide with the goalkeeper beaten, while Tahir Maigana struck the upright in the 63rd minute.
Nasiru Salihu’s rising effort in the 71st minute also went narrowly over the bar, drawing gasps from the crowd.
Seven minutes from time, Maigana again tested Norway with a long-range strike that went just wide as Nigeria continued to pile on the pressure.
Despite their dominance, the Flying Eagles could not find the breakthrough and now turn their attention to Thursday’s clash against Saudi Arabia in their second group match.
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