As great as the action on the pitch has been through the early stages of this summer’s FIFA Men’s World Cup, the decision to effectively break every game into “quarters” with mandatory hydration breaks in each 45-minute half has remained controversial.
The decision, mandated by FIFA under the guise of player welfare, has conveniently allowed broadcasters to air full-screen advertising in a sport that has historically been exempt from commercials breaking up game action. In the case of Fox, the hydration break advertisements are likely generating over $250 million in revenue. Profitable as they may be, the hydration breaks have not been popular amongst fans or former players, for that matter.
USWNT legend Megan Rapinoe appeared on CBS Sports’ We Need to Talk on Tuesday and spoke about the disruptive impact the hydration breaks are having on the flow of games, not just for audiences, but players as well.
“It’d be nice if somebody cared about what the athletes think, not just about selling ads. But what do you think about this?” journalist Andrea Kremer asked Rapinoe on the show.
“Well, I mean, I think it was laid bare like really quickly that it was about selling ads because they said that they weren’t gonna sell ads and then they sold ads in the middle of the game,” the two-time FIFA Women’s World Cup winner responded.
“It’s really an unnatural part of the game.”
Megan Rapinoe spoke on the playing of ads during water breaks at the World Cup. pic.twitter.com/5eECzJgNFJ
— We Need To Talk (@WeNeedToTalk) June 17, 2026
“So that’s just, it’s so antithetical to the sport of soccer and the flow of the game and the momentum. Like if it’s 100 degrees, yes, give these players some water and like player safety over everything. Always. We wanna keep them safe and keep them performing at their best on the field. But it’s just, it feels a little like the squeeze that, that feels like is on the World Cup in general, where it’s ticket prices or just the way FIFA has gone about it.
“And so I think that’s kind of left a bad taste. I think for the viewer, it’s disruptive. If you’re not in stadium, you’re just watching on TV. And then I think for the players, like, it’s really an unnatural part of the game. You’ve never really experienced that on a consistent level before. And then to know that like they’re selling ads when they said they weren’t going to, it’s just kind of like, guys, come on.”
While the breaks themselves won’t be going anywhere, fans don’t necessarily have to be bombarded with ads during them. Telemundo, the exclusive Spanish-language broadcaster in the United States, has refrained from airing full-screen advertisements during the stoppages in order to preserve “an authentic World Cup viewing experience.”
“Antithetical to the sport” as they may be, English-speaking fans don’t have much choice other than to hold out hope that Fox makes the hydration break ads less intrusive on the viewing experience as play stretches deeper into the summer.
