Early kick-offs, drinks breaks, closed roofs and even postponements are going to become common features of summer World Cups, according to a comprehensive new study on the impact of climate change on football.

Published on Tuesday, Pitches in Peril is the first Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change-aligned (IPCC) risk assessment of all 16 venues at next year’s World Cup in North America, as well as the likely venues for the finals of the 2030 and 2034 editions, and grassroots venues linked with 18 global legends of the game.

Thirteen of the host venues in Canada, Mexico and the United States already experience at least one day every summer that exceeds FIFA’s threshold for allowing a drinks break each half — a Wet Bulb Global Temperature (WGBT) of more than 32 degrees Celsius or 82.4 degrees Fahrenheit — with temperatures in Atlanta, Dallas, Houston, Kansas City, Miami and Monterrey exceeding that mark for two months or more.

But more alarmingly, 10 of the 16 host cities also experience at least one day each summer when with a WGBT of 35 degrees Celsius (95 degrees Fahrenheit) when it is simply not safe to play competitive football, with Dallas and Houston hitting that mark on 33 and 51 days, respectively.

Wet-bulb temperature is measured by a thermometer with a wet cloth-wrapped bulb and it indicates the lowest temperature achievable through evaporative cooling, in other words, sweat. The WGBT gauge is a more sophisticated measure of heat stress in direct sunlight, as it is factors in air temperature, cloud cover, humidity, sun angle and wind speed.

The study, which runs to 96 pages, was commissioned by UK-based sustainability campaigners Football for Future and Common Goal, a global collective of football-related charities, and it was complied by California-based climate risk analysis firm Jupiter Intelligence.

While it is true that the stadiums in Dallas, Houston and several other 2026 host cities have roofs, which means players and supporters will be kept cool, the study points out the real impact of climate change on football will be felt at the grassroots level, particularly in the Global South.

Every one of the grassroots pitches analysed, which include the childhood pitches of stars such as Lionel Messi, Cristiano Ronaldo and Mo Salah, has already passed unplayability thresholds for multiple hazards, such as extreme heat, flooding or strong winds, and by 2050, two thirds of these pitches will regularly exceed the 35-degree WGBT limit.

As part of the study, the organisations involved also commissioned a global survey of 3,600 fans that found more than nine out of 10 believe FIFA and the World Cup should be role models for sustainability and want their clubs to take more action to address climate change.

PSG’s Marquinhos cooling down at the Club World Cup (Photo: Stu Forster/Getty Images)

Leading current and former players such as Spain’s 2010 World Cup winner Juan Mata, Germany’s Serge Gnabry and Canada captain Jessie Fleming have all added their voices to the campaign, with Mata quoted in the report as saying football “can no longer ignore the reality of the climate crisis”.

And in a video conference call with reporters to publicise the report, Toulouse and USA defender Mark McKenzie said: “(At) the World Cup, the spectacle is to see the players on the pitch, to watch the matches, to see the goals and celebrations. But if it’s not safe for anybody to be there, then the point of the World Cup kind of goes out the window.”

Arsenal and Colombia youth goalkeeper Alexei Rojas was also on the call and he said: “If young children aren’t able to go outside and play football when they want to, they’re not going to get those touches on the ball…and just have fun – that’s when a lot of the development comes as a young player.

“I’m sure that if we don’t take massive action on this to try and minimise the effects of this, it will be very harmful for all levels of the game moving forward.”

Whether FIFA or any other sporting governing body can do much to tackle climate change seems very unlikely, given the fact that governments around the world seem unable to decide how much of a priority it is, let alone take coordinated action to address it.

But FIFA has so far not looked like an organisation that is taking climate change particularly seriously, as it has recently awarded World Cups to Russia, Qatar and Saudi Arabia, three countries built on wealth from fossil fuels, as well as greatly expanding the size of its tournaments. And this summer’s Club World Cup in the U.S. was dominated by debates about excessive heat and storms, with substitutes hiding in the locker-rooms to avoid the heat and several games reduced to exhibition-match pace because of the energy-sapping conditions.

(Top photo: YUKI IWAMURA/AFP via Getty Images)