2026 World Cup to feature three-minute hydration breaks in every half throughout tournament
Every 2026 World Cup game will pause for three minutes in the middle of each half for a “hydration break”, FIFA announced Sunday.
The new measure — which will essentially split the match into quarters, à la basketball or American football — was discussed at meetings with coaches and broadcasters this weekend adjacent to Friday’s World Cup draw.
It received sufficient support from all parties, including FIFA’s medical team. It is, first and foremost, a player safety measure, FIFA said. But it will also have sporting implications; the breaks allow coaches to speak with players and tweak tactics.
For decades, professional soccer games worldwide have comprised two halves of 45 minutes. They are only interrupted by injuries or if hot weather calls for a “cooling break”. Those cooling breaks have been increasingly introduced in recent years as the planet warms, and as science around exertion in extreme heat has become more advanced.
But the breaks have typically been dependent on temperature and humidity. In most leagues and tournaments, if it’s a cool 70 degrees Fahrenheit, matches don’t pause mid-half.
In 2026, for the first time at a World Cup, they’ll pause no matter what, around 22 minutes into each half.
“There will be no weather or temperature condition in place, with the breaks being called by the referee in all games, to ensure equal conditions for all teams, in all matches,” FIFA said in a release posted online late Sunday night.
Manolo Zubiria, FIFA’s 2026 World Cup chief tournament officer, told stakeholders at a World Broadcaster Meeting in Washington, D.C., that the breaks would “be three minutes from whistle to whistle in both halves.”
“Obviously, if there’s an injury (stoppage) at the moment of the 20th or 21st minute and it’s ongoing, this will be addressed on the spot with the referee,” Zubiria added, according to FIFA.
The clock will not stop for the breaks, but three minutes will be added at the end of each half as stoppage time.
The new policy will please player welfare advocates, though it’s not exactly what FIFPRO, an umbrella organization representing players unions worldwide, argued for this past summer.
Heightened concern during Club World Cup
“Cooling breaks at the 30th minute and 75th minute are quite traditional, but from a physiological point of view it does not make sense,” Vincent Gouttebarge, FIFPRO’s medical director, said on a Zoom call with reporters in June. “Even if you ingest more than 200 milliliters of fluid, you already cannot take it all. So I would definitely like to see some project where we look at the efficacy of perhaps more frequent but shorter cooling breaks — every 15 minutes, rather than only one during each half.”
Concern spiked last summer during the Club World Cup, which featured many afternoon games during a heat wave across the U.S. The semifinals and final all kicked off at 3 p.m. in temperatures above 90 degrees at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey. (FIFA, responding to concerns and player complaints, lowered the threshold for cooling breaks mid-tournament.)
FIFA crafted the 2026 World Cup schedule to largely avoid such heat. Most afternoon games will be played in air-conditioned, roofed stadiums or in cities with temperate climates. Most games in New Jersey, Philadelphia, Miami, Kansas City and Monterrey will kick off in the evening to mitigate risk. (Most, though not all; the final will once again start at 3 p.m. at MetLife.)
The hydration breaks will also allow broadcasters to air more mid-game commercials, if they wish.
Also at the broadcast meeting, representatives from TV rights holders around the globe were told that FIFA plans to stage three different opening ceremonies at the 2026 World Cup — one before the tournament’s very first game at Estadio Azteca in Mexico City, one before Canada’s opener at BMO Field in Toronto, and a third later that day before the U.S. opener at SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, California.
The tournament will open June 11 and feature 104 matches in 39 days, concluding with the final on July 19.
