FIFA is considering locking in those hydration breaks for future World Cups. Yes, the ones fans have been loudly booing all tournament long. Gianni Infantino, the organization’s president, says the stoppages might actually be good for the game and could become a permanent fixture.
This is not a small decision. The breaks happen around the 22-minute mark of each half. They stop the action in the middle of a run of play. And in stadiums with roofs and air conditioning, like the ones in Atlanta, fans have let their feelings be known with some serious jeering.
Infantino defended the move during the tournament. He suggested the breaks give coaches a chance to reset and players a chance to catch their breath before coming back “at full speed.” He asked whether that is actually a bad thing. His argument is that the intensity of matches has been higher than ever, and the breaks might be part of the reason.
“We’ve never seen 90 minutes in a tournament like this played in such an intensity,” Infantino said. “Until the last second of the match, players attack. Maybe it’s also a bit thanks to this little break.”
Fans aren’t buying the fairness argument
The bigger pushback, though, is about why the breaks are needed at all. Some fans see them as a disguised way to insert commercial timeouts, like what you see in American sports. Infantino flatly denies that. He says all advertising contracts were locked in before the hydration break policy was put in place.
His main justification is consistency. If FIFA only called hydration breaks in matches where it was actually hot, he argued, that would give some teams an unfair advantage. Coaches in hot-weather games would get an extra chance to adjust their tactics while coaches in cooler games wouldn’t. In his view, applying the rule universally removes that imbalance.
“Why would the coach have the opportunity to influence the game in one match just because it’s hot and in another match where it’s a bit less hot, he wouldn’t have this opportunity?” Infantino asked.
Still, the crowd reaction has been tough to ignore. When the whistle blows for a break and the players walk to the sidelines for water, the noise from fans in air-conditioned stadiums tends to be a mix of confusion and annoyance. The tournament has featured record goal totals and huge performances from Lionel Messi, Kylian Mbappé, and Erling Haaland, but the hydration stoppages have become a recurring subplot nobody seems to love.
FIFA says it will review the data and feedback after the tournament before making any final call. For now, the breaks are sticking around for the rest of this World Cup. Whether they come back in 2030 is still very much up in the air.
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