Sweden and Canada have appealed to Olympic organizers to ask them to move the women’s gold-medal match on Friday.
Both Sweden and Canada are looking to avoid the heat of the Japanese summer.
The game is set to take place at 11 a.m. local time (10 p.m. ET), with temperatures having hit 40 degrees celsius (or 104 degrees Fahrenheit) earlier this week. Both sides are concerned about player welfare.
“It is primarily about the players’ health we’re thinking about and trying to change the time of the game. There’s a pretty big difference between playing in the afternoon or evening, and we are very much exposed to the warmth and heat,” Marika Domanski Lyfors, head coach of Sweden’s women’s team, told reporters.
“If we have to play at 11 o’clock in the morning then we are prepared, but it would clearly be much better for the performance and the game to have the possibility to play it later,” she continued. “Canada have exactly the same opinion.”
Both the Swedish Football Association and Canada have written to the International Olympic Committee to see if the game can be moved.