World Cup water breaks could reshape football, and boost revenues

The 2026 World Cup began its third day of matches on Saturday, June 13, 2026, and one of the tournament’s most notable innovations is the mandatory water break. For the first time, every match will include a three-minute drinking pause in the first half, at an irregular minute, regardless of the weather. The tournament is being played across three countries, the United States, Mexico and Canada, and with games starting in 13 different time zones, FIFA says the format is meant to create the fairest possible conditions.

The official justification is climate change. The article notes that weather was a major storyline at last year’s Club World Cup in North America, where extreme heat and lightning delays were part of the picture, and says June 2026 conditions are very different from those of World Cups in 2006 and 2014. The players’ union supports breaks, but says many matches will be played in dangerous heat, about a quarter of them, and FIFA’s global players’ union FIFPRO has called for matches in those conditions to be delayed. The article says that is unlikely in a compressed World Cup of 104 matches over 39 days.

The bigger suspicion is money. Critics argue the breaks effectively create two extra three-minute advertising windows during games, something football has not previously allowed. The piece points to the recent Champions League final between Arsenal and Paris Saint-Germain, where water breaks were used in 24-degree weather in Budapest, as an example of the commercial logic. It estimates the World Cup could generate 450 minutes of advertising time, equivalent to nine hours or six football matches, and says U.S. broadcasters could make an additional $7 million to $9 million in total.

The financial upside may grow in future tournaments, including the 2030 World Cup, and if water breaks become standard in European leagues, broadcast rights could rise sharply. The article says some of the sport’s biggest coaches, including Mauricio Pochettino, Didier Deschamps and Pep Guardiola, have said the breaks hurt the flow of the game, while Rudi Garcia sees them as a chance to rethink tactics. On the bench, they may come to function like basketball timeouts, with coaches using them to issue instructions, change formations and possibly influence substitution patterns.