FIFA forcing players to have hydration breaks so they can get a few ads in

La prueba gráfica de cómo la pausa de comercialización rompe la dinámica propia del fútbol como lo hemos conocido.

La FIFA es una joda. El partido de Uruguay estuvo parado 5 minutos (de 58 a 63) por una lesion del arquero. Luego hubo 3 minutos de pausa y más de 5 cambios. Dan 7 minutos. Menos de lo que estuvo parado el segundo tiempo, sin contar los cambios. Rompieron el juguete

Les pauses fraîcheur mises en place à la Coupe du monde ne seront pas reconduites par l'UEFA et la LFP ➡️ l.lequipe.fr/T4e L'UEFA et la LFP ne prévoient pas d'imiter la FIFA, qui coupe les matches de la Coupe du monde en prétextant les conditions climatiques, mais avec des arrière-pensées commerciales.

Hearing that they've violated the IFAB rules of football by turning it into game of 4 quarters like an NBA playoff match, all for the sake of extra advertising dollars has vindicated my decision not to watch this "World Cup." They've literally changed the format of a 150 year-old sport without telling or consulting anybody, so that Burger King can squeeze in 30 more seconds of advertising for its latest zinger meal combo🤮 Farcical.

🚨 𝗕𝗥𝗘𝗔𝗞𝗜𝗡𝗚: Virgil van Dijk speaks out against the hydration breaks! 🗣️ “I have been watching almost every game and I don’t really like the hydration breaks. And for the people watching on television it’s also not great.” “If it’s REALLY HOT, then obviously you need it, but you need to look at it game by game.” “But I think I have said enough already…..”

Fox paid $485 million for the rights to broadcast this World Cup. The New York Times put the fair market value at $1 to $1.5 billion. The hydration break is how Fox gets its money's worth. FIFA announced mandatory 3-minute pauses midway through each half of all 104 World Cup 2026 matches, not just hot ones. That includes games inside climate-controlled domed stadiums with roofs. The announcement came at a World Broadcaster Meeting in Washington DC. FIFA said the decision was made after consultation with coaches and broadcasters. A few months later, FIFA gave broadcasters the green light to sell ads during the pauses. Fox gets 2 minutes and 10 seconds per break, starting 20 seconds after the whistle and ending 30 seconds before play resumes. Across all 104 games, that's 832 potential ad slots that didn't exist in soccer before this tournament. Fox and Telemundo project a combined $850 million in ad revenue from the 2026 World Cup. The player welfare argument is also real. Argentina's Enzo Fernandez said he felt "dizzy" in "very dangerous" temperatures during last summer's Club World Cup in the US, where some games approached 100 degrees Fahrenheit. FIFA had reason to act. But it applied those breaks to every match regardless of conditions, and opened a commercial window that makes this World Cup more ad-friendly than any before it. Fox proved the point on day one. In the opener between Mexico and South Africa, Fox missed the 30-second return window FIFA mandated. The ball was already in play when the network came back from commercials. Coca-Cola, a top-tier global FIFA partner for decades, runs the hydration stations on the field. That same 3-minute pause serves three commercial interests at once: the field sponsor, Fox's ad revenue, and Fox's streaming subscribers. The 2030 World Cup goes to Spain, Portugal, and Morocco. The 2034 tournament lands in Saudi Arabia. Both regions see extreme summer heat. FIFA has not confirmed whether the pauses will outlast this summer's tournament. But $850 million in new advertising inventory tends to answer that question on its own.

RT @IndiaWilloughby: The yank-ification of football 🙄🤮. 4 x “Hydration breaks” of 3 minutes each. The exact same duration of a standard com…

Curacao, ranked 82nd in the world, have Germany, ranked 10th, on the ropes... but let's stop for a "hydration break" in an air-conditioned stadium. What an absolute farce.

Everyone should bombard the @FIFAcom, @FIFAWorldCup, @fifamedia accounts with comment about these god awful ‘hydration breaks’ complaining to eachother or social media won’t do anything. Bombarding them probably won’t either, but at least they can see the public discontent!

😡Klopp explota: "El fútbol está siendo secuestrado por ejecutivos con aire acondicionado" ❗️El alemán criticó las pausas de hidratación innecesarias durante la Copa del Mundo ✍️ @ToniMunar10 sport.es/es/noticias/mundial…

Marco Silva é 🔴⚪!

O Torreense tem as mesmas Taças de Portugal que o Benfica nos últimos 12 anos.

“A época de 26/27 não correu como esperávamos, alguns jogadores estavam cansados do Mundial e depois mal tivemos pré-época devido à Liga Europa. No entanto, a responsabilidade é minha e assumo plenamente.”

Jogadores que vestiram o manto sagrado neste Vietnam 2.0 e já ninguém se lembra: Issa Kaboré

A mudança estava aqui, João Diogo manteigas era o homem certo..

Schjelderup foi eleito melhor avançado, melhor jovem e melhor jogador de abril da @ligaportugal 💎

Há sempre hipóteses de uma pessoa sair de algo com dignidade. Neste caso, é assumir que não tem capacidade para liderar a maior instituição do país, demitir-se e colocar o Benfica acima dos seus próprios interesses. Mas Rui Costa, ainda não percebeu que não tem mãos para isto.

A imagem de um loser 👊🏼