MARGAO: FIFA issued a statement on why Monday’s match between Germany and New Zealand in Group B of the FIFA U-17 Women’s World Cup was stopped, restarted after more than 10 minutes and eventually played for seven minutes as time added on.
The statement, issued after midnight (more than five and a half hours after the match) on Tuesday, said: “Owing to the severe weather conditions and risk of a lightning storm during the group-stage match between New Zealand and Germany taking place in Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium, Goa, a decision was taken to suspend the match for the safety of everyone until favourable conditions returned for it to resume.
“The referee communicated the decision to the teams, and the match was temporarily suspended. As the storm started to change direction and the risk of unsafe weather conditions was averted, an evaluation was made for the play to resume, and the final 7 minutes of the additional time was played.”
The players and coaches of the teams involved, however, clearly said they were not told the reason for the stoppage. The media too were clueless at the start but the possibility of lightning and potential danger to players on the pitch was considered a strong reason for the hold up in play.
Both coaches, Friederieke Kromp of Germany and Leon Birnie of New Zealand, however, accepted the order to stop play. But when the interlude lasted several minutes, the coaches began to get concerned about the cooling down of their players and the potential threat of injuries it could cause.
The players then returned to pitch after the referee signaled for a restart but, by mutual consent, passed the ball around near the centre of the pitch rather than risk injury by playing a normal game.
