Chelsea manager Enzo Maresca has strongly criticized FIFA following a lengthy weather delay during his team's Club World Cup match against Benfica. The game, held on Saturday at Bank of America Stadium in Charlotte, North Carolina, was halted for nearly two hours due to a storm and the risk of lightning. The interruption occurred with just four minutes remaining in regulation time, with Chelsea leading 1-0.
Maresca didn't hold back his feelings about the situation. "I think it's a joke, it's not football," he stated. He acknowledged the need for safety precautions but questioned the suitability of the United States as a host nation given the frequency of weather-related disruptions. "I can understand that for security reasons, you have to suspend the game. But if you suspend seven or eight games, that means that probably this is not the right place to do this competition," Maresca added.
The match ultimately took four hours and 39 minutes to complete, with Chelsea securing a 4-1 victory in extra time. Christopher Nkunku, Pedro Neto, and Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall scored the extra-time goals after Reece James had given Chelsea the lead before the delay. Maresca lamented the impact of the stoppage on the game's flow. "The game was very good for 85 minutes, then we stopped for two hours, and when we started it was a completely different game. It's not the same game because you break the tempo," he explained.
This Club World Cup has seen multiple games affected by weather, with the Chelsea-Benfica match marking the sixth weather delay in the tournament. In addition to the storm delays, the tournament has also faced criticism regarding extreme heat, with temperatures reaching almost 100 degrees Fahrenheit at some venues. These high temperatures particularly affected daytime matches, which were scheduled to accommodate European television audiences.
Maresca emphasized that he is generally a fan of the Club World Cup, especially with its expansion to 32 teams. He also acknowledged that the tournament is serving as a trial run for the upcoming 2026 World Cup in North America. However, he stressed that the number of weather-related suspensions is unacceptable. "It's a fantastic competition. It's the Club World Cup, all the best clubs are here," Maresca said. "But six, seven games suspended? It's not normal. In a World Cup how many have they suspended? Probably zero. In a European , how many games? Zero. There is some problem".
