FIFA’s global football development chief, Arsène Wenger,says the long-term future of hydration breaks remains uncertain as football’s governing body prepares a thorough review following Sunday’s final.
The three-minute stoppages, mandated for all games at this year’s tournament, are not yet a standard feature across global soccer. But they have already caught the attention of broadcasters, who view the breaks as a potential gateway for commercial advertising in future media rights negotiations, several soccer executives told Reuters.
FIFA acknowledged the backlash generated by the mid-half pauses and confirmed that a full analysis would be conducted after the World Cup concludes.
“No, sometimes people didn’t like it and we have to analyse after the World Cup what is the impact,” Wenger said during a news conference. “It didn’t look to me that it changed the results of the competitions. But we are here to serve people who watch football and we will come to the conclusions after the competition.
“In some games, it was really needed and because we want to make any difference between the way games are handled we decided at the start of the competition to do it. We will have a deep analysis after the competition.”
Spain, who face Argentina in todays World Cup final at MetLife Stadium in New Jersey, will be playing only their second outdoor match of the tournament. The hydration breaks have drawn loud jeers from spectators in stadiums and sharp criticism from former players, who have questioned their necessity.
Introduced to protect players from summer heat across host nations the United States, Canada and Mexico, FIFA controversially applied the breaks to all venues regardless of weather conditions.
This included four indoor stadiums — Atlanta, Dallas, Houston and Vancouver — where matches also featured the stoppages for the sake of consistency.
The concept is not new: FIFA first implemented cooling breaks at the 2014 World Cup in Brazil, following a labour court ruling that mandated rest periods when temperatures exceeded 89.6 degrees Fahrenheit.
Currently, most major leagues worldwide allow weather-dependent breaks or leave the decision to the referee’s discretion, making FIFA’s blanket mandate for 2026 a notable departure from established norms.
