4 min readJun 22, 2026 10:13 PM IST
First published on: Jun 22, 2026 at 05:22 PM IST
The FIFA World Cup Group I match between France and Iraq may be disrupted due to the forecast of severe thunderstorms in the Philadelphia region on Monday night at the time of the encounter. According to Accuweather, the weather forecast is “showers and a heavier t-storm, breezy, then rain; thunderstorms with damaging winds, lightning and hail can impact the soccer match and related events.”
In that case, the match might take longer than 90 minutes to complete with FIFA regulations stating that the play must be halted and suspended if lightning is detected within 8 miles of the stadium. In that situation, spectators are taken to a shelter.
“They’ll start to evacuate the stadium to the main concourse and seek emergency shelter. And then it has to wait 30 minutes prior to them bringing everybody back on the field,” Lauren Lambrugo, chief operating officer of Philadelphia Soccer 2026, said as quoted by the Mirror.
However, in those 30 minutes, if there’s another lightning strike or the weather does not change, the play will be suspended again with another window of 30 mins. If this continues, this might take the match over hours to finish.
Meanwhile, in the other match of the day, which is Norway vs Senegal, there were also forecast of heavy rain and possible flooding for the area around MetLife Stadium in New Jersey where the game will be held. The U.S. National Weather Service issued a flood watch for parts of New York City and New Jersey that included Bergen County, where MetLife Stadium is located.
“Showers and potential thunderstorms with high amounts of moisture are expected to move through the area this afternoon and tonight,” the NWS said. “These showers will have the potential to produce up to around 2 inches of rainfall per hour. These rates could result in flash flooding mainly over urban and poor drainage areas.” The open-air venue, which opened in 2010 and seats about 80,000, was constructed over steel pilings in New Jersey marshlands. Kickoff is scheduled for 8 p.m. EDT..
New York City Emergency Management issued a travel advisory.
“I’m urging everyone to plan ahead and give themselves extra time to travel safely,” New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani said in a statement. “No destination is worth risking your safety. If conditions become severe, stay indoors and wait until it’s safe to travel.” There have not been any weather delays during the first 11 days of the tournament.
Heavy rain and electric storms are likely at some World Cup games in the U.S. A year ago, six games at the FIFA Club World Cup were put into weather delays totaling 8½ hours. The match between Chelsea and Dortmund was the worst-hit with the game taking 4 hours and 38 minutes to end at Bank of America Stadium in Charlotte.
While this World Cup has seen no matches getting interrupted due to the weather, the warmup game between England and Costa Rica was delayed by an hour due to lightning.
Spectators at Saturday’s Netherlands-Sweden World Cup game were told to shelter in place at the end of the contest because of lightning in the area.
Meanwhile on Sunday, shortly after the final whistle blew for the Netherlands’ 5-1 win over Sweden, an announcement was made and a warning was posted on the giant video boards at both ends of the stadium.
Stadium officials weren’t physically stopping fans from exiting, but urged them to stay inside the stadium for about 30 minutes after the match ended as rain swept through the area.
France's Kylian Mbappe gestures during a training session ahead of the team's World Cup soccer match against Iraq in Philadelphia, Sunday, June 21, 2026. (AP Photo/Petr David Josek) 
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