The Hot Six Cities: When the World Cup Boils Over
With just weeks to go before the most polluting World Cup ever takes place across three countries in North America, the Cool Down Network launches its climate guides to six of the host cities most likely to suffer heat extremes.
Following fears from leading global experts for the health and safety of players, officials and fans in hot conditions, the guides give a snapshot of the issues facing these ‘hot 6 cities’. According to the experts, FIFA is unprepared with inadequate guidelines that are out of step with the latest climate science and understanding of athletes’ physiology when under heat stress.
As the wheels, jet engines and oil rigs of main sponsor, the oil giant, Aramco, get rolling for the 2026 men's World Cup, we look at what can be expected in host cities Atlanta, Dallas, Houston, Kansas, Miami and Monterrey.
For each city we look at ‘peak heat’ – Atlanta alone has 53 days per year when the Wet Bulb Globe Temperature exceeds 32 degrees Celsius (a measure that includes heat, humidity and other factors), a level far above that considered safe for sport. Miama is expected to have 164 days per year breaking that safety level by 2050. The guides give a quick overview of other issues in the cities, such as official attitudes to immigration, impacts on local communities, and other social and environmental stories. They tell you a bit about the stadia, extreme weather events, fan friendliness, background on heat safety measures and key facts about FIFA.
The 2026 men’s World Cup is set to test the resolve of football fans who love football and hate pollution, exposing the yawning gap between football’s grassroots and its governance. As the guides show, if the game is to have a future it has to become part of the climate solution not a billboard for its problems. We think that overheating fans, match officials and players and being bombarded with propaganda for fossil fuel companies is not a good look for a sport that needs a safe environment to thrive.
Read more here, spread the word and watch out for more around the World Cup from the Cool Down Network.
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