Lightning Within 8 Miles of Estadio Azteca Could Delay England vs Mexico. Here’s the Rule.

England and Mexico are set to meet in the World Cup round of 16 tonight at the Estadio Azteca. But the biggest opponent might not be on the pitch. It could be a thunderstorm rolling in over Mexico City.

Two games at this tournament have already been hit. France’s group match against Iraq in Philadelphia was halted at halftime. It sat through a two-hour delay. And just three days ago, Mexico’s win over Ecuador in the same stadium was pushed back a full hour because of lightning in the capital.

So what happens if it happens again?

FIFA doesn’t have its own weather policy. The local authorities do.

There’s no FIFA rulebook on lightning delays. Instead, the tournament has to follow the regulations set by local governments in North America. And those authorities don’t mess around with storms.

If lightning is spotted within eight miles of the stadium, officials stop the game. Full stop. Everyone on the field has to clear off. Fans have to leave their seats and get to safe shelter. The match can’t restart until at least 30 minutes have passed with zero lightning in that eight-mile radius. And every time a bolt is detected, the clock resets. So that 30-minute wait can stretch into a long night.

What if they just call it off?

That’s the gray area. FIFA doesn’t have a hard deadline for postponing a match. The decision is based on player and fan safety first, plus whether the field is still playable. If they do pull the plug, the game would almost certainly pick up the next day at the exact moment it stopped. If it was paused in the 65th minute, both teams come back to play the remaining 35 minutes.

The same thing happened last summer during the Club World Cup in the U.S. Chelsea’s round-of-16 match against Benfica in Charlotte got stopped four minutes from the end. Lightning was in the area. The delay stretched so long that the game finally finished four and a half hours after kickoff.

For England and Mexico, the stakes are obviously higher. A spot in the quarterfinals is on the line. And nobody wants that decided by a storm that rolls in at the wrong time. But if the lightning shows up, the rule is the rule. And the rule says get off the field and wait.