As soccer fans from across the globe stream into New York City and New Jersey for the FIFA World Cup final on Sunday, another sort of visitor has also been blowing into the area this weekend: toxic plumes of wildfire smoke that have wafted over from Canada.
The smoke, which stems from hundreds of uncontrolled blazes burning in Ontario and northern Minnesota, is threatening to complicate perhaps the most-watched sporting event in the world this weekend: the World Cup final between Spain and Argentina at MetLife Stadium in New Jersey.
The air quality in New York is on track to improve by Sunday, after days of unhealthy conditions. After a reprieve from the haze on Friday, severe thunderstorms on Saturday are expected to scrub the air of some of the lingering smoke.
FIFA has so far not said if it planned to cancel or postpone the final, which will draw tens of thousands of fans to East Rutherford, N. J., along with a slate of global and domestic leaders, including President Trump and New York’s mayor, Zohran Mamdani.
A representative for FIFA did not immediately respond to questions about a potential cancellation or other smoke-related protocols for players.
Near the stadium on Saturday, the Air Quality Index, which measures pollutants in the air, was at 157, or at “unhealthy” levels. That number is expected to drop to 100 on Sunday, a “moderate” level that is considered safe but may carry a risk for sensitive groups, including older adults, children and those with heart or lung disease.
Those conditions, according to physicians, scientists and public health experts, could also strain players’ performances and sicken spectators or stadium employees with underlying conditions, though the risk is relatively low.
“It’s sort of in this gray area where, you know, it’s up to individuals to do the cost-benefit analysis,” said Dan Westervelt, an atmospheric scientist and associate professor at Columbia University. “But I think it’s a big enough issue that FIFA and everybody needs to be monitoring it closely and be nimbly ready to act.”
Dr. Westervelt said that while the forecast was unlikely to change significantly, smoke movement can be hard to predict. A period of hot temperatures, for example, like the ones in New York this week, can pull smoke lower to the Earth, worsening air quality.
“We know that the smoke will be in the area,” he said. “We just don’t know if it’s going to be 5,000 meters up or five meters up — and obviously that makes all the difference when it comes to people’s health and air quality.”
In general, experts said, unhealthy air can be particularly serious for athletes. A person vigorously exerting themselves can take in five to seven times more air than someone sedentary, vastly increasing their intake of pollutants, Michael Jerrett, a professor of environmental health sciences at U.C.L.A., said.
World Cup athletes are in such strong physical condition that they are unlikely to suffer long-term damage from playing one game in poor conditions, Dr. Jerrett said. But smoke can still impact a player’s performance by making it harder to breathe and exacerbating underlying lung conditions, like asthma, he said.
In addition to the danger to vulnerable groups, wildfire smoke in any volume can be especially toxic because it can carry other chemicals and gases, released from wildlife materials, burning buildings and vegetation, some of which can cause cancer.
In New York, where wildfire smoke has not been a public health concern until relatively recently, sporting events are not frequently canceled because of air pollution. In 2023, when an especially intense plume of wildfire smoke from Canada turned the sky orange and sent the AQI into the 400s, the Yankees postponed a game against the White Sox by just one day.
On the West Coast, where wildfires are more common, many regions have protocols for canceling or relocating youth and college sporting events when air pollution is high. But even then, practices and matches sometimes proceed, counter to health advisories.
This summer, World Cup players have battled brutal, and occasionally dangerous, conditions throughout the tournament, including extreme heat and humidity that has pushed “real feel” temperatures above 100 degrees. Last month, a group of scientists wrote to FIFA saying that its heat safety guidelines were insufficient and urging the association to give players longer breaks. This World Cup is the first time mandatory three-minute cooling breaks have been implemented midway through each half.
It was not immediately clear whether FIFA had any such protocols for air pollution in place, or what the governing body planned to do to mitigate the risk of smoke inhalation.
But with a sporting event as closely watched and well attended as Sunday’s World Cup final, a cancellation or postponement appears unlikely.
As the game approaches, Dr. Sharon Chinthrajah, a pulmonologist, allergist and professor at Stanford University, urged fans to bring masks, limit time outdoors before the game and leave if conditions worsened or if they started feeling sick.
She said the United States and other countries must invest in ways to keep citizens safe from smoke as wildfires become more common and the air more dangerous.
“As this is becoming more frequent, it’s more likely that we’re going to have repeated exposure to wildfire events,” Dr. Chinthrajah said, “and we don’t know the long-term health consequences of that.
“Just as we’ve incorporated rain, lightning conditions into sporting events, especially outside sporting events,” she said, “we need to add wildfire to that list.”
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