Brazil and Norway’s Round of 16 World Cup match could kick off at a different time Sunday as FIFA is reportedly considering a schedule adjustment tied to weather concerns and changes affecting another knockout match 2,000 miles to the southwest in Mexico City.
The proposed change would shift one of the World Cup’s marquee Round of 16 games, with FIFA expected to announce a final decision before kickoff as teams await confirmation of the revised schedule.
According to Brazilian journalist Pedro Ivo Almeida, reporting just before 7 p.m. Friday, the match will be played at the original time â but his report had not been confirmed and FIFA had made no announcement of a decision.
Brazil-Norway Kickoff Time Change Explained
The match is currently set for 4 p.m. ET at New York New Jersey Stadium in East Rutherford. A shift to roughly 5 p.m. ET appears to be the leading alternative, tied to a separate scheduling question involving Mexico and England in Mexico City.
FIFA is considering moving Mexico’s Round of 16 date against England at Estadio Azteca several hours earlier, a shift driven by severe weather concerns in the capital, according to The Daily Star. Pushing that fixture forward risks overlapping broadcast windows already set aside for Brazil-Norway, which is what put the New Jersey kickoff in play in the first place. Neither federation has received a final ruling.
Weather at New York New Jersey Stadium carries its own separate risk, unrelated to the Mexico City logistics. The U.S. National Weather Service has issued heat warnings for the region, and Climate Central’s tournament data puts the odds of performance-impairing heat at Sunday’s match around 36 percent, a figure researchers tie to rising regional temperatures driven by climate change. That threshold reflects heat capable of slowing elite players down and lengthening recovery time between sprints during a knockout-round match.
A Brazilian Football Confederation spokesperson confirmed the federation is preparing for the possibility of a time change. The match “could be delayed by an hour,” the spokesperson said, as quoted by The Daily Star. A separate CBF statement published by The Athletic stated, “A change is possible and we are waiting on FIFA.”
When FIFA Could Confirm the New Schedule
FIFA has not confirmed anything publicly as of Friday. FIFA’s official match schedule page still lists the original 4 p.m. local start for Brazil-Norway, with no asterisk or notation attached anywhere on the listing as of Friday afternoon.
That has not slowed speculation. Some outlets treated the delay as close to finalized Friday, circulating the approximate 5 p.m. ET window as the expected new target rather than a possibility still under review. Betting markets moved with the chatter, with Brazil sitting near a 51.5 percent implied probability to advance on Polymarket, a tight number for a five-time champion facing a Norway side anchored by Erling Haaland and built around a stubborn defensive structure.
FIFA has already moved quickly once this tournament when conditions demanded it. Mexico’s Round of 32 match against Ecuador was delayed an hour for weather reasons earlier in the World Cup, setting a precedent for exactly this kind of late adjustment on short notice ahead of a knockout match.
Both scheduling questions are expected to resolve on a similar timeline, since the two kickoffs are now directly linked in FIFA’s broadcast planning. Fans planning to watch Brazil-Norway should treat 4 p.m. ET as the working start time until FIFA updates its official schedule, with a one-hour delay standing as the most likely outcome if organizers finalize the change before Sunday’s Round of 16 match kicks off in New Jersey.
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