At BC Place in Vancouver on Thursday, Canada rolled to a 6-0 win over Qatar, securing its first-ever victory at a World Cup. But 22 minutes into the game, the rowdy, pro-Canada crowd suddenly erupted into boos.
Those in the know knew exactly why the Canadian fans were booing, and it had nothing to do with their team, or the game itself. Instead, the dissatisfaction was about the hydration break, the new three-minute breaks in between halves for water that have sparked significant discussion at the 2026 World Cup.
Advertisement
FIFA introduced the concept back in December, stating that the three-minute breaks would be standardized “no matter where the games are played, no matter if there’s a roof, (or) temperature-wise.”
However, when put in practice, the decision to ignore context has led to confusion and criticism from fans, players and coaches alike.
World Cup schedule | Group schedule, results | Standings
French manager Didier Deschamps said it was “splitting the halves” in a way that could disrupt momentum.
“It’s almost four quarters, and before we had two halves,” Deschamps said. “So the players and obviously the coaches are adapting, but it’s a two-pronged approach.”
Ghana’s Jerome Opoku takes a drink during a hydration break in Wednesday’s match against Panama at Toronto Stadium, despite rainy 66-degree conditions.
(Darrian Traynor via Getty Images)
There are situations where hydration breaks make sense. Players have welcomed them in hot, open-air venues such as Boston and Kansas City, and temperatures reached 90 degrees during Belgium’s draw with Egypt in Seattle.
Advertisement
But many World Cup matches are being played in climate-controlled stadiums, and the breaks are mandatory regardless of conditions. Spain coach Luis de la Fuente acknowledged as much before his team’s draw with Cape Verde in Atlanta, saying the pauses were useful in extreme heat but less necessary inside a cooled stadium.
That inconsistency is what Netherlands captain Virgil van Dijk pointed to after his team’s draw with Japan and he raised another factor as well: commercials. The added break gives FIFA’s broadcast partners extra advertising inventory.
“Hydration breaks are a bit interesting, because I was obviously watching almost all the games up until today, and every time going to commercial is a bit … Not really that I like it,” van Dijk said. “I think for the neutral watchers on TV it’s also not great. If it’s really hot, obviously it would be good to put them in. But I think you have to look at it in every game, separately, in my opinion.
“But I think I’ve said enough already for that,” he added.
Fox, which carries the English-broadcast rights in the U.S. and is making massive money off ads during hydration breaks, came back late from a commercial break during the tournament opener between Mexico and South Africa. Telemundo, which carries the Spanish-broadcast rights, has said it will not play commercials during the mid-half pauses; as a result, fans online have spoken about choosing the service for that reason.
Trying to make the best of it, teams are using the breaks to discuss tactics. U.S. men’s national team coach Mauricio Pochettino introduced the practice during the team’s pre-tournament tuneups, going viral for the image of the players gathered around his laptop during the brief pause.
Advertisement
Before Norway’s 4-1 win over Iraq, coach Ståle Solbakken said cooling breaks made sense at the team’s base camp in Greensboro, North Carolina, but not necessarily during matches.
“I’m not a fan of it. I can understand it when it’s like it’s been in Greensboro when it’s been 35 degrees and a really hot climate,” he said, “but I don’t like it otherwise. I think it’s unnecessary. But now we are playing with it and then we have to use them well.”
Solbakken added that it affected how they approach substitutions: Many coaches tend to make a second-half substitutions between the 60- and 70-minute mark, and the second-half hydration break starts at the 67th minute.
And in the context of the other FIFA rule changes, he said it didn’t make sense.
“All that is good and that is to speed up the game, but the other things slow down the game, so it speaks against itself,” Solbakken said said.
South Korea discusses tactics during a hydration break in their loss to Mexico.
(Carl Recine via Getty Images)
Soccer is already a sport where momentum can turn on a dime, but the hydration breaks seem to kill momentum in its tracks, even if it offers a helpful chance to regroup. Unfortunately, teams have accepted that their only choice is to make it work.
Advertisement
After Panama’s loss to Ghana — in Toronto, where the weather was in the low 70s — head coach Thomas Christiansen said that the team could use the breaks for “corrections,” but couldn’t fight the larger system.
“The weather conditions, it was not hot, but we have to accept that … everything advertised on the television is what (is) paying (for) all these things, and we have to agree on that,” he said.
