Chelsea manager Enzo Maresca suggested that the United States is not fit to host international soccer competitions after his team’s match with Benfica was suspended for almost two hours due to a weather delay.

With the threat of lightning in the area, players and fans were told to seek shelter while the storm passed. The game was approaching its end with Chelsea holding a 1-0 lead, but when they returned, Benfica equalised and forced extra time, in which Chelsea scored three goals to eventually get the job done.

The weather delay plus the extra time meant the game took almost five hours to complete. It would have been even longer if Chelsea hadn’t scored those goals in extra time, and the game had gone to a penalty shootout.

Safety is the priority in these situations. Protecting everyone involved at the stadium by seeking shelter indoors during these storms is not controversial in itself, but it does raise questions around hosting such events in a region known for such delays.

This was the sixth game at the Club World Cup to experience a weather-related delay, and it is an issue that will more than likely affect the FIFA World Cup played across the United States, Mexico, and Canada next year.

“I think it’s a joke to be honest, it’s not football,” said Maresca.

“I struggle to understand. I can understand that for security reasons, you are to suspend the game, but if you suspend seven, eight games, that means that probably [this]

is not the right place to do this competition.

“It is not normal to suspend the game, in a World Cup, how many games have they suspended? In Europe, how many games? Zero problem.”

There was an incident at Euro 2024 when a game between Germany and Denmark in Dortmund had to be suspended for similar reasons due to an intense spell of lightning in the area, but it is generally rare in European football.

The Americas are much more prone to lightning strikes than Europe, making it difficult to avoid, especially between June and August when these sporting events are generally held.

Games in the Southern states, in Florida especially, are most susceptible to such weather delays, while games in Mexico in 2026 also have the potential to be affected by storms, intense heat, and rain.

Weather delays are not unusual in the United States’ top soccer division, Major League Soccer, so FIFA will surely have known that this would happen at the summer tournaments it is hosting in the region this year and next.

The league has seen delays lasting over three hours, and as recently as Wednesday, an MLS game between FC Dallas and San Jose Earthquakes was delayed by over an hour.

If the delays happened mid-game, it can sometimes feel like a different match when the teams resume play.

“For 85 minutes we were in control of the game,” Maresca said. “After the break, the game changed completely.”

Chelsea full-back Reece James added: “It was a very difficult game with a lot of interruptions.

“The climate wasn’t the best, the pitch wasn’t the best, it was hard to play, and we got into 85 minutes, and we stopped for a long period.

“It takes a lot out of the players to cool down and then restart that engine again, but we’re happy we got the job done.”

James also alludes to the surface at the Bank of America stadium in Charlotte, where the game was played.

Games in the stadium, which is home to the NFL’s Carolina Panthers and Charlotte FC of MLS, are normally played on artificial turf, but a temporary grass surface is being used for the Club World Cup.

It will be a similar setup for the World Cup in 2026, where the NFL stadiums in the U.S. that normally use artificial turf will install temporary grass surfaces for the tournament.

The reviews of the playing surfaces in this summer’s Club World Cup have not been good, and this is something else FIFA will have to take into account ahead of 2026, as they’ll also be affected by weather conditions.

The issue of weather delays is not going away, and will only get worse. Upcoming summer tournaments, wherever they take place, are likely to experience increasing problems with intense heat, storms, and heavy rain.

It might reach a point where entire calendars for sporting events need to be rearranged, or summer tournaments are played in certain parts of the world where disruptive weather is less of an issue.

For now, weather reporting is increasingly becoming part of the matchday experience, especially in the U.S., with many teams now having sections of their websites dedicated to weather forecasting.

If the 2025 Club World Cup was partly a learning experience for FIFA and one of its host nations ahead of the 2026 World Cup, then it has learned that this will be an issue it can’t avoid.