June 22, 2026
Vincent Carchietta/Imagn Images
France is scheduled to take on Iraq on Monday evening at Lincoln Financial Field, but severe weather could impact the game. Above, France midfielder Warren Zaire-Emery, right, passes with a teammate during a practice at the University of Pennsylvania.
Severe weather caused FIFA Fan Festival to close Monday afternoon and more storms in the forecast could impact this evening's World Cup game in Philadelphia.
France and Iraq took the pitch on time for their 5 p.m. match at Lincoln Financial Field, but the National Weather Service's Mount Holly location still showed scattered thunderstorms from 3-11 p.m., flash flooding and a possible isolated tornado in the forecast.
Lincoln Financial Field opened the gates after about a 40-minute delay Monday afternoon in which the venue told fans to stay away until skies cleared.
Much like American football, weather has to be pretty severe for a soccer match to get called off. Here's everything ticket holders and fans should know ahead of Monday's match.
For weather-related issues, FIFA has to defer to local protocols instead of setting its own policies. In the United States, that means adhering to National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration guidelines, which say that if a lightning strike occurs within 8 miles of the stadium, the game must be put on pause.
At that time, all players must leave the field and attendees need to seek shelter in the concourse. Officials set a 30-minute countdown clock, which restarts every time there's another strike within the radius. After 30 minutes without nearby strikes, the game can resume after a brief warmup.
There's no set amount of suspended time in which a game moves from a delay to a cancellation, so it will be a case-by-case basis for Philly's matches. In the event of a cancellation, the match would be rescheduled for another day (likely pretty soon after, given FIFA's tight schedule), and it would resume at the same minute in the match that it was paused. The players will play out the remaining minutes.
Weather-related issues aren't entirely unheard of for soccer matches in the United States. During last year's Club World Cup, six of the 63 games were delayed because of electrical storms. Multiple matches were also played in over 90-degree heat, leading FIFA to add mandatory water breaks in the first and second half of matches for the World Cup.
On Thursday, the FIFA Fan Festival at Lemon Hill closed early due to high winds that "disrupted the venue." Monday's weather caused a similar change, as organizers said around 2 p.m. that the Fairmount Park venue will be closed for the rest of the day. For the rest of the week, it's recommended that people who plan to attend follow the event's social media accounts for the most up-to-date information.
This story has been updated.
