James asks FIFA to reconsider the kickoff times of World Cup matches

Reece James has added his voice to a growing chorus of players and staff who want FIFA to rethink kickoff times for next year’s World Cup in the United States, Canada and Mexico.

His central point is simple. Heat and humidity can turn a football match into a physiological stress test, and moving games to cooler windows would reduce risk while improving the quality of play. Last summer’s Club World Cup offered a preview. Players labored through oppressive conditions, and even elite athletes reported dizziness, cramping, and trouble recovering between sprints. James told the BBC that English players in particular struggle in those environments because their domestic season rarely exposes them to that level of heat and moisture.

The Chelsea defender knows the trade offs firsthand. His team lifted the Club World Cup trophy, yet performance conversations kept circling back to weather. Enzo Fernández called it dangerously hot and said he felt dizzy during a match. In Philadelphia a training session hit 37 degrees Celsius, while the humidity drove the heat index toward what felt like 45. That difference between air temperature and how hot it feels is where hazards hide. When sweat stops evaporating efficiently, the body loses its best cooling mechanism, heart rate spikes, and decision making suffers.

James hopes FIFA will bake that reality into the schedule. The most obvious lever is later kickoffs that avoid the mid afternoon heat plateau and the peak in radiant load from direct sun. Evening windows generally bring lower air temperatures, lighter UV exposure, and more tolerable wet bulb readings. That last measure, often summarized as the Wet Bulb Globe Temperature, captures the combined stress of heat, humidity, sun, and wind. Medical teams rely on it to determine when extra cooling breaks are mandatory, how long warm ups can safely run, and whether to adjust substitution plans to protect players at risk.

There are broader competitive reasons to act. Heat skews the style of a match. High pressing becomes less sustainable, recovery runs lose zip, and late game quality drops as muscle power fades. Teams that normally build through multiple rotations may simplify into longer balls or slower circulation to conserve energy. Fans notice. So do broadcasters. A World Cup is sport and spectacle. If kickoff windows can preserve intensity for the full ninety minutes, the product improves for everyone.

Scheduling is never a blank canvas. FIFA balances stadium availability, host city logistics, broadcast commitments across continents, and the need for fair recovery between matches. The case for player welfare is not a demand to ignore those realities, but to treat climate as a primary constraint rather than a secondary consideration. North America in summer is a patchwork. Coastal breezes can make one venue comfortable while an inland city swelters. Altitude, urban heat islands, and late afternoon thunderstorms further complicate things. A smarter template would cluster the hottest cities in later slots, favor venues with shade or retractable roofs for earlier starts, and use rest days to avoid asking the same team to shoulder multiple peak heat windows in a row.

Medical protocols have advanced, but they are not a substitute for better scheduling. Cooling breaks with cold towels and ice slurries help. So do mist fans, pitch side shade, and pre cooling strategies in the dressing room. Nutrition and hydration plans are now individualized with sweat rate testing and electrolyte profiling. Yet the most effective intervention remains avoidance of the harshest conditions. Begin later and the physiology eases. Begin earlier and you invite risk. James’s appeal is essentially to choose the lower risk scenario whenever the calendar allows.

Pitch quality, which James also mentioned, is part of the same ecosystem. Heat and heavy use stress grass growth and root stability. A dry surface can become slick on top and hard underneath, which taxes joints and invites slips that lead to sudden overstretches. In humid conditions, shallow watering before kickoffs can create a greasy top layer that further alters footing. FIFA and local grounds teams will aim for consistent moisture and length, but turf thrives under moderate conditions. Kickoffs that dodge the most punishing heat help the grass as much as the players.

Communication matters too. James noted that no one from FIFA had asked him directly about his Club World Cup experience, though he assumes feedback flowed through clubs and managers. For trust to grow, players need to see their lived reality reflected in decisions. That could mean a formal player panel on heat management, public thresholds for when kickoff times will shift based on forecasted wet bulb values, and transparent explanations when constraints force exceptions. Even a small number of visible adjustments would signal that the process is responsive rather than rigid.

There are silver linings for organizers who tilt the schedule later. Evening football under lights is television friendly in many markets, and cooler conditions often deliver faster, cleaner matches. Supporters inside the stadiums will likely find travel and queuing more comfortable, concessions less strained, and atmospheres richer as the sun drops and noise rises. The trade off is felt most in European primetime overlaps and in host city operations that stretch deeper into the night, but those are solvable with planning.

For players, the ask is pragmatic. They accept the demands of a long season and the spotlight of a global tournament. What they want is a stage set to show their best without preventable health risks. Reece James has given the debate a clear focal point. Adjust kickoff times where climate warrants it, lean on medical science, and treat player welfare as a performance enhancer rather than a constraint. If FIFA brings that mindset to the scheduling matrix, the World Cup can showcase speed, skill, and stamina without asking athletes to spend their most precious resource fighting the weather.