{"id":532722,"date":"2026-07-04T13:27:08","date_gmt":"2026-07-04T13:27:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/532722\/"},"modified":"2026-07-04T13:27:08","modified_gmt":"2026-07-04T13:27:08","slug":"england-v-mexico-to-stay-at-original-kick-off-time-after-day-of-chaos-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/532722\/","title":{"rendered":"England v Mexico to stay at original kick-off time after day of chaos \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

England<\/a> have avoided the prospect of their World Cup<\/a> Round of 16 match against Mexico<\/a> being brought forward by six hours after a chaotic day that saw Fifa engaged in discussions with multiple stakeholders over a new kick-off time.<\/p>\n

The clash in Mexico City will still be played at 6pm local time (Monday, 1am Irish time), but only after a period of intense confusion in which both camps were left scrambling for clarity. Fifa were wrong footed when news leaked in Mexico during the afternoon that negotiations to make the switch, which would ostensibly have been down to the prospect of thunderstorms and flooding on Sunday evening, were taking place but ultimately decided to keep the status quo.<\/p>\n

The confusion led to farcical scenes such as the Mexico manager, Javier Aguirre, going public to criticise a decision that was never confirmed. \u201cThe schedule change hits like a kick in the stomach,\u201d he said. \u201cWe have to change the entire plan. I don\u2019t like it at all.\u201d The Mexican FA are understood to have been told by broadcasters on Friday lunchtime that the kick-off would be changed and were braced for confirmation from Fifa.<\/p>\n

The English FA was stunned upon hearing of a potential change and is understood to be unimpressed by the afternoon\u2019s back and forth. It had been faced with the prospect of its finely tuned preparations being thrown up in the air at short notice. Thomas Tuchel and his players flew to Mexico City from their base in Kansas City on Friday afternoon and the game would have kicked off less than 48 hours after their arrival.<\/p>\n

[\u00a0World Cup 2026: Pico Lopes gives Ireland a World Cup by proxy as Cape Verde capture heartsOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

In the end, the logistical challenge involved in moving forward the timings for a gargantuan matchday workforce is believed to have been a factor in the decision not to change kick-off time. More than 50,000 people will be involved in different elements of the game\u2019s setup.<\/p>\n

Commercial and broadcasting factors may also have come into play. Brazil and Norway kick off in New Jersey at 9pm BST on Sunday, meaning the nowadays unthinkable prospect of a clash if Mexico and England went into extra time. The potential inconvenience to supporters, some of whom are due to fly into Mexico City early on matchday at significant expense, was also factored in.<\/p>\n

The unfavourable weather forecast brings up the possibility of a delayed kick-off similar to that of Mexico\u2019s last-32 win over Ecuador, which was held up by an hour after a vicious electric storm. Sources also suggested that an earlier start would have gone down well with local authorities for safety reasons after all-night celebrations following that game ended with four deaths.<\/p>\n

Fifa have been keen to show flexibility in the face of adverse weather after six of last year\u2019s Club World Cup matches suffered severe weather delays. France\u2019s group stage game against Iraq in Philadelphia was another to be interrupted by storms this summer, ultimately being held up for two hours. \u2013 Guardian<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"England have avoided the prospect of their World Cup Round of 16 match against Mexico being brought forward…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":532723,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[11148,61,60,2628,112,4018],"class_list":["post-532722","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-england-football-team","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-mexico","tag-sports","tag-world-cup"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/532722","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=532722"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/532722\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/532723"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=532722"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=532722"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=532722"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}