FIFA has confirmed that the match between Australia and Canada in Chengdu has been postponed to Thursday after the schedule of the other World Cup Group C match had been amended due to typhoon Wipha.

"Based on the latest weather reports about the evolution of typhoon Wipha, which indicate that all remaining Group Stage matches can be played on 20 September, FIFA has decided to amend the FIFA Women's World Cup China 2007 match schedule as follows," read an official press release by the world soccer governing body.

"Match 22, Australia-Canada will be played on 20 September, 17:00, in Chengdu. Match 23, China-New Zealand will be played on 20 Sep, 20:00, in Tianjin," it added.

"Many of us have planned to leave Chengdu tomorrow after watching today's match. The sudden change on fixtures made it a mass," said C Reid from ABC Radio of Australia.

"As I know, some Australian players have brought their family here and many of them had bought the tickets back home for tomorrow," he added.

A newspaper reporter from Canada, who refused to give his name, told Xinhua that the FIFA should have announced it earlier.

"The players must have been disappointed and loose-minded after enthusiastically preparing for a match but being informed not to go at such a time close to the scheduled kicking off time," he said.

An anonymous FIFA official working for the Chengdu LOC told media and the teams about the cancellation as soon as she got informed, but it's not earlier than 1600 local time, just one hour ahead of the starting time, after the Australian and Canadan teams had arrived at the Sport Center Stadium of Chengdu to wait for the afternoon's match.

The LOC only posted an urgent notice at 1630 to inform the audience, and the FIFA released the official announcement at a time past 1700.

According to the official announcement, the FIFA explained that they could not apply it on the previous day because of "the force majeure case - the uncertainties of the weather".

The FIFA, however, had announced on Tuesday that the Norway-Ghana match of Group C will be played in Hangzhou at 1700 local time on Thursday, followed by the Group D match of Brazil and Denmark at 20:00

It was widely blamed of the FIFA's decision as the other matches of the two groups' last round had previously being remained on Wednesday's fixtures.

In accordance to the fair play regulations, the last matches in each group should be played simultaneously.