The International Federation of Association Football (FIFA) is preparing to implement a controversial amendment in the 2026 World Cup final scheduled for next Sunday at MetLife Stadium in New York-New Jersey; it intends to extend the halftime break to a full 30 minutes, double the usual duration in football matches worldwide (15 minutes).

The step, led by FIFA President Gianni Infantino, comes as part of FIFA's efforts to transform the closing scene of the world's biggest football event into a massive entertainment show mimicking the Super Bowl, the American football league final, and relying on the American model of exploiting timeouts commercially and for advertising.

According to the Spanish newspaper Mundo Deportivo, this step raises legal questions about the extent of FIFA's right to violate Article 7 of the International Football Association Board (IFAB) laws, which explicitly states that "players have the right to a halftime break not exceeding 15 minutes," and that any modification requires the mandatory approval of the match referee.

Photo from Reuters

HYDRATION BREAK

The newspaper added, "Scrutiny of the official regulations issued by FIFA for the 2026 World Cup reveals full legal immunization for this decision, as Article 1 of the tournament regulations states that 'binding decisions and rules issued by FIFA prevail and dominate over these regulations in case of any conflict, and must be complied with by all concerned parties.'"

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Moreover, FIFA deliberately excluded in Article 36 of the current World Cup regulations any mention of the need to obtain the referee's permission to modify the break time, giving the FIFA Executive Committee absolute power to extend time for marketing purposes without refereeing restrictions.

The international federation already has a successful experience that it relied on as a legal and regulatory precedent, when it extended the break to 24 minutes in last summer's Club World Cup final during the match between Paris Saint-Germain and Chelsea.

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Second chapter of a big entertainment plan

According to leaks from the Spanish press, the long break (30 minutes) was precisely designed to implement the second chapter of a big entertainment plan. The first chapter (pre-match) starts 90 minutes before kickoff and includes the official closing ceremony with global stars including Tom Cruise, Robbie Williams, Laura Pausini, and Nicole Scherzinger.

The halftime break in the second chapter will last 30 minutes; the live musical show takes only 11 minutes, while a full 19 minutes are allocated for quick entry operations, installation of the huge stage on the field, and then dismantling and clearing it by hundreds of technicians.

The show is artistically led by star Chris Martin (Coldplay), with participation of stars Shakira, the official World Cup song performer, Madonna, Justin Bieber, BTS, and Burna Boy

Photo from Reuters

HYDRATION BREAK 2

A massive wave of criticism

In contrast to the huge expected financial and promotional gains from advertising and TV broadcasting, the decision faced a massive wave of criticism from technical and medical circles in the football world, which focused on three main axes: player safety and injury risk, where national team medical staff warned that players sitting for half an hour leads to muscle cooling and reduced physical effort, sharply increasing the risk of serious muscle injuries when returning for the second half.

The second axis is disrupting the technical rhythm, as technical directors believe that the long break destroys the tactical momentum and match rhythm built by the two teams during the first half.

The third axis is destroying the pitch, and it said, "There are real fears about the impact of the heavy weights of the stage and the movements of hundreds of individuals on the hybrid grass, natural and artificial, of MetLife Stadium, a stadium that has already faced sharp criticism over the quality of its pitch in previous rounds."