Big screens inside the Azteca alerted people that an electrical storm was approaching and to remain in their seats, though many sought cover from the rain.<\/p>\n
Play cannot begin until 30 minutes have passed since lightning was last detected within an eight-mile radius of the stadium.<\/p>\n
With regards to delays caused by severe weather, Fifa has no power to make its own rules – it must adhere to the advice of local authorities.<\/p>\n
In the United States, recommendations of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) are used.<\/p>\n
The NOAA says if any lightning strike is detected within eight miles of a stadium the game has to be stopped. The rules are the same in Mexico.<\/p>\n
When there is an increased risk of lightning strikes, the safety of players and supporters is given paramount importance.<\/p>\n
All players must leave the pitch, and fans must seek shelter away from their seats.<\/p>\n
A mandatory 30-minute countdown begins. Each time there is a lightning strike inside the distance, the countdown clock resets to 30 minutes.<\/p>\n
If a full 30 minutes has elapsed, the supporters can go back to their seats and players will have a short warm-up.<\/p>\n
Sources told BBC Sport on Saturday that world governing body Fifa had been set to reschedule the fixture, and confirm in a statement, but news of the proposal angered both English and Mexican officials.<\/p>\n
The English Football Association (FA) requested time to review the weather forecast in more detail.<\/p>\n
As talks went on, concerns over the impact on player preparation, fan travel and the logistics around moving the staging of such a huge game were discussed.<\/p>\n
The proposed change was first reported by local media in Mexico.<\/p>\n
Fifa maintained no decision had been made and – after pushback from both associations – it was decided to keep the tie at its original kick-off time.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Big screens inside the Azteca alerted people that an electrical storm was approaching and to remain in their…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":676054,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[59,57,58,50,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-676053","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-united-kingdom","tag-gb","tag-great-britain","tag-greatbritain","tag-news","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/676053","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=676053"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/676053\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/676054"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=676053"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=676053"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=676053"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}