Extreme heat continues to be a major concern throughout this year’s World Cup, and organizers of the tournament have built hydration breaks into games designed to help players stay safe. And some stadiums have air conditioning. But that doesn’t help all the people selling concessions, cleaning the stadium, or working security or parking lots outside. Lucia Gambino of the workers’ rights group Sur Legal Collaborative, which is offering shade, water, electrolytes, cooling towels, and other supplies and resources to stadium workers in Atlanta, said she’s seen people ‘visibly affected by the heat,’ red in the face and reporting a lack of access to water or shade. ‘It’s just a little bit ironic that FIFA is recognizing that the athletes need water, shade, and breaks to stay safe and to be able to play, but we don’t see that recognized for the workers as well,’ Gambino said. Several World Cup host cities fell under the heat dome that settled over eastern North America last week, with brutally hot temperatures and heat index values in Atlanta, Miami, Dallas, Houston, Kansas City, Philadelphia, New York, and Toronto. This kind of heat isn’t just uncomfortable; it’s dangerous, putting workers at risk of heat exhaustion or heat stroke. Before the tournament began, a paper published in the journal Applied Physiology, Nutrition, and Metabolism warned that these risks were coming. Climate change is making heat waves hotter, of course, so, the paper warned, those who travel to work the tournament or who are doing different work than they usually do may not be acclimatized to the heat and face increased risk. And unlike athletes in peak physical shape, workers are more likely to have underlying health issues, said study co-author Andrew Grundstein, a geography and atmospheric sciences professor at the University of Georgia. The workers also aren’t all employed by FIFA, or any single organization, he said, adding to the complexity of addressing the risks. Some may be employed directly by the stadiums, while others work for contractors or subcontractors, which must adhere to local, state, and federal safety regulations but may have different company policies and ways of communicating risks to employees. ‘So I think it’s a really challenging thing to come up with this uniform heat policy for all the different workers,’ Grundstein said. This year’s far-flung tournament further complicates things, according to study co-author Maggie Morrissey of Providence College and the heat safety-focused Korey Stringer Institute. The games are taking place in three different countries, which have different laws around heat and worker protection. Those protections — or lack thereof — also vary by state within the United States. Read Next One year after the Texas floods, home feels further away than ever Laura Mallonee ‘It’s very much reliant on the organization or company themselves or the state regulation,’ said Morrissey on the information and protections available to workers. ‘But I do think FIFA has a really important job to do to have people recognize that workers are at risk of heat injuries as well.’ In a statement, FIFA laid out its ‘tiered heat mitigation model’ for the tournament. When the forecast predicts elevated temperatures, venues add more cooling capacity, including shaded areas and water distribution, the organization said. ‘Work-rest cycles for staff and volunteers are adapted accordingly, and first-aid readiness is reinforced with clear triage and escalation pathways for suspected heat illness,’ the statement read. ‘These measures scale dynamically based on real-time conditions before and during each event.’ FIFA also said it has a heat illness mitigation task force. A spokesperson for AMB Sports and Entertainment, Atlanta’s stadium ownership group, said in an email that heat wasn’t affecting events there as much as other host cities because the stadium is enclosed. But during Tuesday’s knock-out round match between Argentina and Egypt, which kicked off at noon on a day when the temperature in Atlanta hit 93 degrees, ‘it was clear the heat was taking a toll,’ Gambino said. She saw workers leaving the stadium drenched in sweat and said they were eager to accept the fan-shaped flyers her organization was handing out. Volunteers, too, expressed frustration at working in the hot weather, Gambino said. Atlanta will host one more World Cup game, the semifinal match on July 15th, when high temperatures are expected to be in the upper 80s. Stronger regulations to protect workers from the heat could help keep people safe, Gambino said. She also said formal collaborations with the stadium or the city could help boost worker assistance efforts like Play Fair ATL’s resource center — and she hopes that can happen for future big events. FIFA could also require worker protections in the agreements that the global organization signs with host cities, Morrissey said. ‘We wouldn’t have the World Cup happening if we didn’t have workers,’ she said. ‘It’s sort of like a call to action for FIFA to say they need to elevate the protection for workers.’ Frida Garza contributed reporting to this story. This story was originally published by Grist with the headline Workers are risking dangerous heat to keep the World Cup running on Jul 10, 2026.