The prime minister and foreign secretary were involved in arguing for the kick-off time for England’s World Cup match against Mexico not to be moved earlier – as mooted by Fifa in the days before the game.
Sir Keir Starmer instructed officials to make the case, backed by the Football Association, that the match should remain in its original time slot, as first reported by the Sun newspaper, external.
Yvette Cooper spoke to the British ambassador to Mexico, to ask that British diplomats made representations against a change, to ensure that the 3,000 travelling England fans didn’t miss the match as a result.
Fifa had been set to bring the match forward by six hours, due to a forecast of thunderstorms.
In the end, Fifa stuck to the scheduled start time, but kick-off was then delayed by an hour because of the weather.
Speaking at a Downing Street reception, Sir Keir said: “We had to battle with the FA to get it back to where it was, which was counterintuitive.”
The Football Association has not commented.