The International Olympic Committee says it’s not aware of any plans to change the kickoff time for the women’s soccer final between Canada and Sweden.
IOC spokesman Mark Adams was asked about changing the time of the gold medal match, saying he was “not aware of any changes in the schedule at this time.”
Both teams have asked to avoid kicking off in the Olympic Stadium at 11 a.m. local time Friday — an almost unprecedented early start for soccer at any time of year. The forecast temperature at kickoff is around 31 C.
A later time would risk a clash with the track and field program in the stadium later Friday, though other venues in Tokyo have been used for Olympic soccer and seem available.
Changes to the Olympic schedule involve the IOC, Tokyo officials, sports bodies like soccer’s FIFA and broadcasters.
The world champion U.S. team was expected to make the final and the 11 a.m. kickoff in Tokyo would have allowed NBC to broadcast the game at 10 p.m. on the East Coast and 7 p.m. on the West.
Adams said Thursday he “can’t shed any more light” on the process of moving the game.
“Obviously with the rescheduling of any event, there is a committee consisting of national Olympic committees, the federation — in this case FIFA — and of course the organizing committee. At this stage I’m not aware of any changes to the schedule.”
–With files from The Associated Press
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