It was the 21st minute when Liviano Comenencia shot a ball that was left without an owner on the edge of the Germany area. The shot is poisoned between the legs of one of the defenders and Manuel Neuer is surprised under the goal. As surprised as all of us who were in front of the television watching Curacao’s first goal in the final phase of a Soccer World Cup were.
The game, by then, was beginning to go crazy. Germany was driving but the German team looked uncomfortable. The top favorite suit was not fitting him at all, it was obvious that the shirt was a little small and that the collar was too tight. The public began to dream of one of those historical feats.
But five minutes were enough to wake us up from our reverie. Stop to take a breath. Cooling Breaksays on the television sign. And on the way back, there was Germany. Now he had replaced his shirt, already tucked well inside his pants. Before the usual break came, the Germans had already settled into the game and were winning 3-1.
Curacao can boast of having tied Germany for a few minutes. And he will also regret being one of those great victims of a new football that is played in four quarters.
From player protection to the advertising business
In FIFA World Cup 2026™ matches, players will enjoy three-minute rehydration breaks midway through each half. With this measure, FIFA prioritizes the well-being of the players during the edition of the competition that will be held next summer in Canada, Mexico and the United States.
When FIFA introduced hydration breaks for the first time 12 years ago he did it due to pressure from the players themselves. Faced with the extreme heat and humidity of Brazil, the footballers pressed until the highest body of world football agreed to temporarily stop the match in the 30th and 60th minutes, as long as the certified temperature exceeded 32 degrees.
Two minutes and continue running chasing the ball. Since then, the measure has been extended to all types of competitions, as long as the temperatures and the weather conditions were extreme.
But FIFA, as stated on its own websitehas decided that in this World Cup the match will be paused in the 22nd minute of each half. A measure, they say, that “gives priority to the well-being of the players” and that is applied “in all matches, regardless of the weather and prevailing temperaturesto grant equal conditions to all teams in all matches”.
That is, the match stops even when it is played below the aforementioned 32 degrees. In fact, it stops even when the match is played in a stadium with the roof closed and the air conditioning on. When Germany-Curaçao stopped, the thermometer read just over 20 degrees.
The Caribbeans were the perfect victim. The break, without exhausted players, was the perfect time to take the short break as a time-out, take a deep breath and reorganize ideas. Before the break, Germany had put ground in the middle and had crushed all Curaçao resistance.
It is the best example that football, as FIFA wants in this World Cup, is a new sport that is played in four 22-minute quarters. And, incidentally, a new formula to put a new advertising break into the viewers’ eyes. More available screen time, more business, more millions.
There was little doubt about the true purpose of these advertising spaces breaks for hydration but a cell phone is enough in the stadium to dismantle the FIFA discourse: the players waiting for the order of the referee who observes on a tablet if the announcements have ended on the television signal offered by the players.
“These three minutes stop everything. We have to adapt. The televisions are happy, right?“, ironically said Didier Deschamps, France coach, in words collected by The Wall Street Journal. “I don’t like it. I only want them when the conditions are extreme but if the weather is good, it’s unnecessary,” lamented Mauricio Pochetino, United States coach.
The most ridiculous situations have been seen when Germany players asked the referee to restart the match against Curacao after 90 seconds. It is logical that the meeting remained stopped. They explain in the American newspaper that advertisers pay around $200,000 for 30 seconds in these pauses but that the figure rises to $750,000 if the United States plays.
They explain in that same article The Wall Street Journal that those responsible for the media do not hide from the true purpose either. Before the World Cup, Zac Kenworthy, one of Fox’s vice presidents, already pointed out that “FIFA is always looking for ways to innovate. They are very interested in the American market, in how sports are done here.”
The implications of a new football
“I’ve been watching all the games and when there’s a hydration break… well, I don’t really like it. I think they’re necessary if it’s really hot but you should treat each game separately.”
With these words Virgil Van Dijk, captain of the Netherlands, was referring to the obligatory break to hydrate. “I’ve already talked too much,” he said to the camera with a face of obvious discomfort.
Jürgen Klopp has been much less uncomfortable, who was the coach of Liverpool and Borussia Dortmund, believing that the pauses are “a golden cage built for advertisers. Football is being hijacked by managers entrenched in air-conditioned offices,” they report in Basque newspaper.
And the problem is that these breaks completely change the nature of the sport. The three-minute pause decreed for each and every match breaks the rhythm and offers an advantage to those who run in all directions without finding the water with which to put out the fire. The unforeseeable in football, the temporary madness unleashed on the playing field paralyzed in favor of the umpteenth potato chip advertisement on television.
EITHER, how they collect in elDiario.esthe official mayonnaise of the National Team. Necessary genuflections to capture the 7,775 million euros that FIFA hopes to raise with this World Cup, of which more than 4,000 million euros come from television.
In exchange, distort that game in which 11 players face each other during two 45-minute halves to convert it into a sport of four 22-minute quarters. (in which Germany always wins). A formula much closer to the taste of the American public that has grown up between the timeouts and commercials of baseball, American football and the NBA. Sports in which The pauses are constant and mark the points of maximum expectation. A problem for soccer, incapable of enchanting an American spectator who cannot find beauty in a sport that can end with a goalless tie.
The implications for the game are obvious.. Hydration breaks have become downtime for the teams to reorganizemore advantage for those who have the best coaches and are capable of better adjusting tactical changes. Another facility for large teams that can enter the field since the Covid-19 crisis two more players instead of the traditional three changes (and a third if the match goes to extra time and a fourth if one of the players is replaced due to a blow to the head).
With the five changes established and budgets that begin to rival the GDP of a small country, club football is increasingly predictable with longer and longer squads that are a black hole for the middle class and, above all, sets the bar higher for small clubs.
The World Cup, like all national team football, usually offers worse tactical football but rewards the unpredictable and the unexpected, those who manage feelings better, those who function with ease in the chaos generated by not having a well-rounded and perfected team on a daily basis. With disorder comes fun and surprises. Memorable moments multiply.
It remains to be seen if anyone within FIFA discovers this evidence. With 4,000 million euros more in the bank account, it is most likely that they will put the necessary blindfolds in front of their eyes.
Photo | Spanish Soccer Team
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