ReviewSports medicine (Auckland, N.Z.)2026
The 2026 Men's FIFA Football World Cup: Evidence-Based Guidelines to Protect Player Health and Performance from Environmental Challenges.
Review in Sports medicine (Auckland, N.Z.), 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 5 papers.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
5 citing papers in PubMed.
- One Step Further: Integrating Evidence-Based Guidelines into Practice to Address Environmental Challenges at the Men's 2026 FIFA World Cup.Sports medicine (Auckland, N.Z.) · 2026Review
- World Cup Challenges Are Not New: Increasing Complexity and the Evolution of Preparation Across 48 Years of FIFA World Cups.Sports medicine (Auckland, N.Z.) · 2026Article
- Nutritional Strategies to Support Performance Maintenance and Recovery in Football Under Hot Environmental Conditions: A Narrative Review.Nutrients · 2026Review
- A post-PHEIC review of cultural awareness in the COVID-19 response.Public health reviews · 2026Review
- From rhetoric to reality: an empirical audit of athlete-centred governance in the Toronto 2015 Pan/Parapan American games.Frontiers in sports and active living · 2026Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
8 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
The Men's 2026 Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) Football World Cup (FWC) will take place across the USA, Mexico and Canada, with host cities spanning ~ 4300 km east-west and ~ 4000 km north-south. The geographical distribution exposes players to environmental challenges that can negatively impact their health and performance, including: (i) extreme heat; (ii) altitude; (iii) air pollution and seasonal allergens; and (iv) travel. FWCs have never presented this combination of extreme environmental factors. Extreme heat is expected in 14 out of the 16 host cities, with historical maximum wet-bulb globe temperatures ranging from 21 to 35 °C (mean ambient temperatures: 19.1-32.7 °C). Matches in Guadalajara (1566 m) and Mexico City (2240 m) will take place at altitude. Travel requirements and increased human activities during mega-events increase the susceptibility of players/athletes to, and risk and spread of, airborne illnesses. Changes in air pollution and allergens from players' domestic club locations and between host cities will also impact player health. Circadian misalignment (up to 19 time zones may be crossed to reach team base camps) and travel fatigue (up to 3 time zones crossed and a 7-h in-tournament flight time) may impact players' mental and physical health, decrementing athletic performance. Teams adopting evidence-based guidelines to mitigate the impact of these environmental challenges will be best prepared to protect player health and performance during the tournament. Therefore, this review presents the predicted environmental challenges using the best available data and models and provides evidence-based long- and short-term strategies to best mitigate their impact. Relevant clinical considerations for each challenge are also outlined.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.