Wellington Phoenix captain Andrew Durante says A-League organisers need to make sure there is no repeat of last Sunday's match in Adelaide played in 39 degree heat.
Phoenix captain Andrew Durante. Photo: PHOTOSPORT
The Phoenix wanted kick off pushed back to later in the afternoon but the request was denied.
The match against Adelaide United was drawn 2-2.
Extra drink breaks were added, but Durante said the heat caused a Phoenix player to vomit at half-time.
"I'd like to see the head of the A-League come out and play 90 minutes in that heat," an acerbic Durante told reporters.
"It's dangerous. Hopefully there's some more common sense around next time it happens."
Football Federation Australia (FFA) said medical staff at the match had confirmed that no player suffered from heat stroke and that extra drinks breaks were taken.
It said the temperature in Adelaide did not exceed the mark set for a match to be stopped under its Wet Bulb Globe Temperature (WBGT) heat policy.
A Fairfax report, however, cited a consensus reached by 17 sports scientists in 2015 that the WBGT method underestimated the risk of heat stress, "especially when athletes had little time to acclimatise to hot conditions."
Fairfax noted the method was developed by the United States military in the 1950s and two scientists had labeled it obsolete.
The FFA said its heat policy offered greater consideration to player welfare than the FIFA policy and that of most other sports around the world.
