Braving the storm: How sport deals with extreme weather
World Rugby chiefs have been slammed for failing to reschedule matches impacted this weekend by Typhoon Hagibis. Could they learn lessons from other organisations in dealing with such worst-case scenarios?
SOCCER
Fans wondering whether their team could suffer the same fate as those at the Rugby World Cup if severe weather disrupted the Uefa European Championship in 2020 or the Fifa World Cup in Qatar in 2022 will struggle to find an answer.
Whereas Rugby World Cup organisers set out a clear plan in advance of the tournament in Japan that games unable to be staged because of bad weather would be abandoned and declared as a 0-0 draw, with two points allocated to both teams, football authorities traditionally take a more flexible approach.
Both Fifa and Uefa publish regulations online for major tournaments and have opted to be less prescriptive when it comes to what to do if a match cannot be played for reasons beyond the organiser’s or teams’ control.
Fifa, in its World Cup regulations, leaves the final decision to its organising committee by including severe weather in a final catch-all paragraph, saying:
Matters not provided for in these regulations or cases of force majeure shall be decided by the Fifa Organising Committee.
Similarly, Uefa, in its regulations for next year’s European Championships, says:
Any matters not provided for in these regulations, such as cases of force majeure, will be decided by the Uefa Emergency Panel or, if not possible due to time constraints, by the Uefa president or, in his absence, by the Uefa general secretary. Such decisions are final.
That doesn’t mean, however, that no plan is in place. Fifa’s requirements of countries which host a World Cup includes a full risk assessment to include terrorism, severe adverse weather, and natural disasters such as earthquakes and volcanic eruptions. Plus, crucially, a strategy if a match is abandoned, postponed or delayed. What that strategy is, however, nobody seems to know.
This approach could be regarded as more flexible, perhaps, because it doesn’t rule out the possibility of the game being played elsewhere at a later date. But, ultimately, it could also be seen as less transparent.
GAA
The late notice of match postponements due to inclement weather has often been a bone of contention for inter-county Gaelic footballers and hurlers predominantly in the Allianz Leagues.
However, it is GAA policy for referees, liaising with the association’s national fixtures staff, to make the final decision on whether a game goes ahead.
With match officials usually not arriving at grounds until two or three hours beforehand, the call can be frustratingly 11th-hour. Last year, Leitrim footballer Emlyn Mulligan expressed frustration on Twitter about how the county’s Division 4 game in March was called off due to a waterlogged pitch:
On the road since half 6 this morning. 2hrs down the road on way to Waterford got word game was off. Grand. 2hr drive home, get word game may be on tomorrow at 2pm, same venue (9 hr round trip) Seriously! We just do what we’re told #joke”.
In the end, the game was never played as it was postponed a second time and by the final round it was of no consequence to promotion.
Cancellations in the GAA are few and far between, but last year Waterford-Leitrim was one of three football league games marked null and void by the Central Competitions Control Committee with Leitrim also granting London a walkover due to logistical difficulties caused by the poor weather.
All counties are requested to provide alternative venues, but often they are either unplayable or, due to TV agreements, they have to be played at the original grounds.
In 2010, the opening league game between Tipperary and Kilkenny scheduled for Thurles in February was twice postponed before it eventually took place in Semple Stadium the following month.
In extreme cases, the GAA have given plenty of notice. Before the first weekend of March last year, they postponed all 33 Allianz Football and Hurling League games on the Thursday before due to Storm Emma.
Both in 2017 and last year, the National Leagues over-ran into the newly designated club month of April due to bad weather, while both Division 1 football and hurling finals took place as a double-header this year due to fixtures congestion brought on by Mother Nature.
Last year, the Gaelic Players Association (GPA) said they would back counties such as Mulligan’s Leitrim if they wished to boycott league games rescheduled for that St Patrick’s bank holiday Monday.
While some matches such as Division 1 quarter-finals went ahead that day, several football games, which had been called off, were done so a second time due to unplayable pitches, but the lack of consultation with players in the first place irritated the GPA.
HOCKEY
The International Hockey Federation’s extreme weather protocols came under the microscope earlier this year when Germany’s Pro League tie against Argentina was cancelled in February.
Like the Rugby World Cup, a 0-0 draw was recorded “since the match was identified as not being able to be played on the same day as scheduled” following heavy rain and thunder.
The decision by the FIH drew widespread criticism, with Germany travelling to Buenos Aires for the one-off match. Argentina ultimately missed out on a play-off place on goal difference.
The decision was also criticised for being at odds with the eight-page FIH document relating to weather-related issues, which highlights to the preference for producing alternative schedule solutions. Indeed, it was new ground for the FIH. Usually, hockey tournaments are played over 10 to 18 days at single venues, with a set date in place for a final.
As such, rescheduling is commonplace for issues like the weather. The Pro League, however, is a new competition and criticism abounded for a lack of facility for an alternative date or venue for what proved to be a crucial result.
Irish teams have fallen foul of the usual protocols. In 2010, the Icelandic ash cloud saw Ireland’s World Cup qualifier hopes thrown into disarray as flights out of Dublin were grounded in the week prior to their tournament in Santiago.
Scotland were also affected while Ukraine pulled out entirely. The FIH’s protocols saw the finishing date of the competition remain fixed, but the event structure and schedule altered, shoe-horned into a shorter format. Gene Muller’s side ended up being forced to play four games in five days, starting their campaign four days after eventual winners Australia had beaten the hosts, Chile.
With one day to acclimatise, Ireland lost 3-0 to Malaysia, effectively ending their challenge immediately.
GOLF
The weather can make or break a golf tournament over the course of four days — or eight, if you played in that seemingly interminable 2006 European Tour Q-School at San Roque in Spain.
Given the format and the potential for torrential rain, thunder and lightning, hurricane-force winds, and every other natural disaster known to man, golf suffers more than most and delays are part and parcel of the weekly grind.
It’s not unusual for tournaments to be reduced from 72 to 54, and even 36 holes due to all manner of weather-inflicted mayhem.
While Shane Lowry and Rory McIlroy had a snowball fight in Tucson, Arizona following unseasonal weather at altitude during the WGC Accenture Match Play, the thaw came and play went on.
As a billion-dollar business, the sport does everything in its power to avoid the worst of the weather, bringing forward or pushing back tee times, using two nines and expanding from two balls to four if that’s what it takes to thumb its nose at Mother Nature.
Forget Lee Trevino’s quip that the only protection from being struck by lightning on a golf course was to hold a one iron loft — “because not even God can hit a one-iron.”
A bolt from the blue can strike 62 miles from its source, so all tours now exercise a zero-tolerance policy when it comes to electrical activity and employ full-time meteorologists and other early warning systems to ensure they are not caught on the hop.
Fans are quickly warned to head for the gates or seek shelter if dangerous storms are approaching, and the major tours often park fleets of vehicles at strategic points around a course to ensure the players can make a quick escape.
While there are accidents — a Dungannon man was one of six treated for injuries after lightning hit a tree during a delay at the Tour Championship in Atlanta in August — beating the weather is simply part of tour life, with the Monday finish often the worst-case scenario.
Of course, it would take some going to match the run of bad luck that struck the 1986 US Women’s Open at storm-lashed NCR Country Club in Ohio, which was hit by noxious smoke, an earthquake, and flesh-eating flies. The smoke was caused by a derailed railroad tanker loaded with phosphorus, which crashed 10 miles away and then ignited, creating a cloud that forced the evacuation of 30,000 people.
Then came the flies, followed by a Saturday-night earthquake that was felt in four states and measured 4.2 on the Richter scale. Despite all that, the event still finished on time!
HORSE RACING
If looking for an equivalent of a World Cup event, where returning in a month’s time is not an option, the Cheltenham Festival is your reference point.
Snow and frost are constant threats, but in recent years, it has been wind that has threatened to play havoc with the nirvana of national hunt.
In 2008, the second day of the four-day bonanza had to be abandoned when a gale blew a structure at Prestbury Park down, leading to obvious safety concerns. With the forecast predicting 50mph winds including up to 3pm, which was just before the feature Queen Mother Champion Chase was due to commence, stewards and management decided to postpone a decision until the morning, when it was evident that there would be no respite.
No races were lost however, with Wednesday’s six scheduled contests divided over the next two days, when the action began an hour earlier than normal at 12.30pm to cater for the bumper nine-race programmes.
There was almost an identical occurrence last March, when the Champion Chase-day card was threatened once again — this time by Storm Gareth.
With extra races having been added to the overall festival, re-allocating them over the next two days, as occurred 11 years previously, was not considered a safe and viable option.
Postponing an entire Cheltenham fixture for three days until the Saturday had never happened before, and there were added complications in that a number of the casual staff employed in bars and restaurants were required for the England-Scotland Six Nations’ match at Twickenham that day.
Nevertheless, Saturday was adopted as Plan B, but by the time a precautionary inspection took place at 8am, Gareth had relented and racing went ahead.
