{"id":225353,"date":"2026-06-22T23:46:11","date_gmt":"2026-06-22T23:46:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/225353\/"},"modified":"2026-06-22T23:46:11","modified_gmt":"2026-06-22T23:46:11","slug":"storms-halt-play-at-france-iraq-world-cup-match-in-philadelphia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/225353\/","title":{"rendered":"Storms halt play at France-Iraq World Cup match in Philadelphia"},"content":{"rendered":"

PHILADELPHIA (AP) \u2014 Heavy rain and thunderstorms prompted a delay of nearly two hours at halftime of Monday\u2019s World Cup<\/a> match between France and Iraq.<\/p>\n

It was the first rain delay of the tournament and the first time in at least several decades that a World Cup match was delayed midgame because of inclement weather. After about 1 hour, 40 minutes, an announcement said the threat had passed, and the teams returned to the field to warm up as rain continued.<\/p>\n

There was also heavy rain ahead of Monday night\u2019s scheduled game between Norway and Senegal<\/a> in East Rutherford, New Jersey.<\/p>\n

With France leading 1-0 at halftime, scoreboard messages directed the crowd at Lincoln Financial Field to take shelter in the stadium\u2019s covered areas, warning that a severe storm was on the way. Sheets of rain fell through halftime as thousands of fans huddled in the concourse and under balconies.<\/p>\n

The stoppage was initially expected to extend the 15-minute halftime break by another 15 minutes. As the delay dragged on, stadium officials announced that \u201cthe game will resume when deemed safe.\u201d<\/p>\n

A rule used by FIFA pauses games for 30 minutes if lightning is detected within 8 miles. Each strike resets the clock.<\/p>\n

France and Iraq played through a downpour that started in the 37th minute. Fans donned ponchos and most stayed in their seats until they were told to find shelter at halftime.<\/p>\n

FIFA long had a reputation for continuing matches even through extreme weather. A 2014 game between the U.S. and Germany continued in Brazil even after torrential downpour that flooded parts of the surrounding city.<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

AP World Cup: https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/fifa-world-cup<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"PHILADELPHIA (AP) \u2014 Heavy rain and thunderstorms prompted a delay of nearly two hours at halftime of Monday\u2019s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":225354,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[2013,2395,97858,38,68910,97859,40,28,69,71,70,11868,726,44,1133],"class_list":["post-225353","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-philadelphia","tag-fifa-world-cup","tag-france","tag-france-national-soccer-team","tag-general-news","tag-iraq","tag-iraq-national-soccer-team","tag-pa-state-wire","tag-pennsylvania","tag-philadelphia","tag-philadelphia-headlines","tag-philadelphia-news","tag-soccer","tag-sports","tag-u-s-news","tag-weather"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/225353","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=225353"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/225353\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/225354"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=225353"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=225353"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=225353"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}