The World Cup final halftime show is going to be longer than a standard break. That much is confirmed. FIFA has planned an 11-minute performance at MetLife Stadium featuring Madonna, Shakira, Justin Bieber and others. And reports say the gap between halves will push well past the 15 minutes written into the game’s laws.
Some traditionalists have already complained. But here’s the thing a top events executive wants you to understand: you’re thinking about it wrong.
Michael Gietzen, CEO of the global events firm Identity, doesn’t see the extended break as a problem. He sees it as FIFA finally getting with the program.
“Football has its own rhythm and its own rules and of course that matters. But a World Cup final isn’t ‘most of the time,’” Gietzen said. “It happens once every four years, in front of the biggest audience any single sporting event can pull. Treating it like a normal weekend fixture is the mistake, not the half-time show.”
His point is pretty straightforward. The Super Bowl has made halftime performances into a cultural event for decades. Why shouldn’t the World Cup do the same thing?
“A good half-time show isn’t a distraction from the football. It’s part of the reason people remember exactly where they were when they watched it,” he said. “A few extra minutes to get that right isn’t a compromise, it’s Fifa recognizing that the final is a cultural event as much as a sporting one.”
Gietzen didn’t stop there. He called out the purists directly.
“Purists may call that a dilution. I’d call it Fifa catching up to what a decent proportion of audiences have wanted for years. A final like this comes round once every four years. Play it safe and you waste the moment.”
What We Know About the Show
FIFA president Gianni Infantino has hyped the performance as a “groundbreaking spectacle” that will “celebrate football, music and our shared values, ensuring a legacy that transcends the final whistle.” That’s a lot of corporate language, but the actual lineup is legit.
Beyond Madonna, Shakira and Bieber, the closing ceremony before the match will include Tom Cruise, Robbie Williams, Jennifer Hudson, Nicole Scherzinger, Laura Pausini and streamer IShowSpeed. Hudson is scheduled to sing the national anthem. That ceremony happens 90 minutes before kickoff.
As for TV coverage, ITV has confirmed it will air the full halftime show. The BBC has not announced its plans yet but is expected to in the coming days.
The real tension here is simple: do you treat the World Cup final like a normal match, or do you lean into the fact that it’s one of the biggest live events on the planet? FIFA is clearly choosing the latter. And honestly, given the audience numbers, it’s hard to argue they’re wrong.
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