England game postponed because of heavy rain

The World Cup qualifier between Poland and England has been postponed until tomorrow due to a waterlogged pitch after the roof of Warsaw's national stadium was left open, a Polish FA spokeswoman said.

The decision was taken to rearrange the game for 5 p.m. tomorrow  following a pitch inspection after an evening of torrential rain.

The Warsaw stadium has a retractable roof, but a Polish FA spokeswoman said neither of the team representatives nor the FIFA delegate wanted to make the decision to close it.

"None of the sides wanted such a solution," said Agnieszka Olejkowska. "We knew there would be heavy rain but we could not 100 percent predict the downpour."

With rain still falling heavily at the scheduled kick-off time she said it was not possible to close the roof.

"We have a heating system which, if we close the roof, can dry the pitch in 30 minutes," she said.