Gary Neville has blasted Fifa for the utter confusion caused by the uncertainty surrounding kick-off for England’s last-16 tie with Mexico amid an attempt to move it forward by six hours.
Fifa and the Mexican and English football associations have been in talks over the scheduled kick-off time, with the consideration of adverse weather and the prospect of flooding in Mexico City.
Reports suggested that the time was set to change from 6pm local time (1am BST on Monday) to 12pm local time (7pm BST) due to the storm warning, only for it to emerge that Fifa had backtracked to the original kick-off time a few hours later.
Even the idea of a World Cup fixture being moved at this late notice has raised the eyebrow of Neville, who lamented Fifa’s way of doing things “willy nilly”.
“I would find it disruptive as a player,” Neville told ITV Sport. “Conditions are huge for England, playing at 12pm in Mexico vs playing at 6pm, it’s very different, for our players, it’s worse, let’s be clear.
“It’s a sporting disadvantage to England, there’s a sporting integrity issue here. I’ve never seen a League Two game moved back, Fifa are just willy nilly making it up and moving a game, it feels strange.
“You can put fan safety at the heart of it, this is a stadium that has had this type of conditions before, they have a procedure to deal with it.
“I was there when my brother was managing Inter Miami. It can be disrupted for an hour, they go underneath, they get shelter. To move a game two days out, I’ve never seen that at any level of football ever.”
Fifa is yet to release any sort of official statement but sources close to the governing body told The Independent that after further discussions the Mexico v England game will kick off as scheduled at 6pm local time on Sunday and that no decision was ever made to reschedule the start time.
The debacle is understood to have angered the Mexican and English FAs, with Mexico manager Javier Aguirre saying he was left in the dark.
“Nobody asked me,” he said. “At 6pm we were perfectly fine. We’ve performed very well at that time.
“It’s an ideal kick-off, and I love it because we play well then. Noon is not a common time for us.
“I don’t think we’ve played at 12pm in 40 years. This team has never played at that hour under me.
“I don’t agree with it, and nobody asked me, but Fifa decides and I comply.”
