Decisive World Cup group stage matches will not be suspended due to weather delays, a decision that raises concerns about potential manipulation and echoes the infamous "Disgrace of Gijon" from the 1982 tournament.
Starting tonight, the final matches within each group will be played simultaneously to ensure competitive integrity. However, recent weather disruptions in North America have highlighted the potential for delays.
According to reports, if one of the simultaneous final group games is halted by weather, the other match in the same group will continue. This policy creates the possibility that teams in the weather-affected game could know the exact result needed to qualify because the other match has already concluded.
This situation mirrors the 1982 World Cup match between West Germany and Austria. In that game, with both teams aware that a West German victory by fewer than three goals would see both nations advance, the match became widely criticized for its lack of competitive effort after an early German goal.
FIFA ultimately ruled that no rules were broken in the 1982 incident. However, the controversy led to a revision in tournament regulations, implementing the simultaneous kick-off rule for final group games, as outlined in Article 12.4 of the World Cup Regulations.
Daily Mail Sport has also learned that FIFA will not impose time limits on matches delayed by weather, opting instead to play them to completion.
France's match against Iraq on Monday became the first game of the current tournament to be impacted by weather when thunderstorms occurred at halftime. The game, which France was leading 1-0, was delayed for two hours before resuming and concluding with a 3-0 victory for France. The match began at 5 p.m. local time and ended at 8:47 p.m.