British Prime Minister Starmer intervened to prevent FIFA from changing the kick-off time between Mexico and England

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer appeared to confirm on Monday that he had intervened to prevent FIFA from moving forward the kick-off of England’s match with Mexico by six hours.

The apparent intervention, first reported by The sun Daily came amid fears that the earlier start would give Mexico an unfair advantage over England as it would give the team less time to adapt to the altitude.

Mexico City’s Estadio Azteca is 2,240 meters (7,350 feet) above sea level and presents a tough challenge for visiting players.

“We had to fight with the FA (Football Association) to get it back to where it was, which was counter-intuitive,” Starmer told guests at a garden reception in his Downing Street office.

England defeated Mexico 3-2 in a nail-biting World Cup match to reach the quarter-finals.

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Sunday’s match was scheduled to start at 6:00 PM local time (0000 GMT).

However, on Friday FIFA confirmed it had held discussions about moving the match forward by six hours to avoid possible storms.

After consultations with both teams, FIFA said it had ultimately decided to stick to the scheduled kick-off time, although adverse weather conditions delayed kick-off by an hour to 7pm (0100 GMT).

The intervention comes after US President Donald Trump confirmed he had called FIFA president Gianni Infantino and asked him to review the World Cup ban of US striker Folarin Balogun.

Football’s governing body took the unusual decision on Sunday to suspend the ban for a year. Trump quickly thanked the governing body in a social media post for «undoing a great injustice.»

Published on July 6, 2026