Arsene Wenger, FIFA's Director of Global Football Development, has publicly acknowledged that the "hydration break" introduced in the 2026 North American World Cup failed to gain popularity among fans and announced that FIFA will reconsider the continuation of the system after the tournament concludes.
The British BBC reported on the 19th (Korean time) that former Arsenal manager Wenger admitted that "sometimes people did not like the water break time," and that "FIFA will analyze its impact after the World Cup," the outlet said.
The hydration break was implemented in all matches of this tournament by having the referee stop the game at approximately the 22-minute mark of each half, giving players 3 minutes to rehydrate. While FIFA cited "player health protection" as the reason for introducing the measure, suspicions about its true purpose arose as it was implemented without exception in all matches regardless of temperature or weather conditions.
The core of the controversy was "advertising time." According to the BBC, the average price for a 30-second World Cup advertisement on Fox Sports, the U.S. broadcaster for this tournament, ranged from $200,000 to $300,000 (approximately 300 million to 450 million won), and soared to as much as $750,000 (approximately 1.12 billion won) for U.S. matches and tournament stages. This sparked fan outrage that it was essentially a trick to guarantee advertising airtime for broadcasters who paid FIFA hefty broadcasting rights fees.
Former manager Wenger drew a line by saying there was no impact on match results, but made it clear that he could not ignore viewers' experience. He said, "I don't think it had any impact on the match results," but added, "We are here for the people watching football. We will reach a conclusion later."
The hydration break, facing criticism for disrupting the flow of the game and tangled in questions of effectiveness with arguments that "3 minutes is too short and should be 6 minutes," is now under intense scrutiny. As the North American World Cup concludes, all eyes around the world are on which direction FIFA will take regarding this system.
