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FIFA will assess how the water break ends after the World Cup, Arsene Wenger said ahead of the deadline.
Published on 19 Jul 2026
FIFA’s director of football development, Arsene Wenger, has admitted that some fans are not happy with the hydration break that has been introduced. World Cup for the first time showing that the governing body has not made a decision to continue the competition.
Asked at a press conference on Saturday if he had seen anything to suggest that the three minutes allowed between each half improved the players’ skills and the flow of the game, Wenger said: “No.”
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“Sometimes people were not happy with it, and we have to evaluate after the World Cup what the results are,” the former Arsenal manager told reporters.
“It did not look to me that it changed the outcome of the competition. But we are here to serve the people who watch football, and we will be sure after the competition.”
His words are not committed to the New York New Jersey Stadium that will host the final in the center Argentina and Spain On Sunday he stood in contrast to his praise for some of the changes FIFA introduced to the tournament.
For example, Wenger and other members of the FIFA Technical Study Group praised the rule that players who seek medical attention should leave for one minute.
According to FIFA, the new law reduced the number of medical interventions from 2.3 per match in 2022 to 1.6 per match.
“There’s something about this law that can’t be measured – that’s the frustration you feel when someone is lying on the pitch and they’re not injured,” Wenger said. “I asked a lot of people what they thought about the results, and everyone was positive about it.”
But when the break came, the FIFA chief said the fans had their doubts.
“In some games, especially where the stadiums were covered, people didn’t enjoy it. But at the beginning of the competition they decided to treat everyone,” said Wenger.
“Medications are needed in many sports. We are not at the end, but I promise we will find one.”
Before the World Cup, the opposition could call a time-out or cool-down in the heat of the game, but that was their decision to make, not a rule. Also, the break lasted about 90 seconds versus the full 3 minutes continuous competition.
The purpose of the break is to protect the players from the heat, but the sound is not clear in matches played in air-conditioned stadiums or in cold weather.
For example, at the time of Egypt-Iran match in Seattle during the group stage, it was about 16 degrees Celsius (60 degrees Fahrenheit), but the players still had to stop for three minutes in each half.
“If they take a break tonight, it will be funny because it’s so cold,” Egypt fan Roger Antoine told Al Jazeera before the game.
Throughout the tournament, many fans complained about halftime and jeered. He said it was set up to allow advertisers to put in a break and kick the ball to the American sports genre built around TV commercials.
During the USA’s opening game against Paraguay in Los Angeles, where the stadium was closed, one official referred to parts of the game as “quarters” because of the stoppage time.
One of the biggest complaints about hydration breaks is that it can change the course of the game, taking the wind out of the main teams and allowing the other side to regroup more intelligently and strategically.
Several teams have scored a hydration break.
“There’s clear evidence, if you look at the numbers, that the momentum is going the other way after halftime, and that’s not how football has been played for 200 years or more,” said Cesar Espino, a football fan in Washington, DC. he told Al Jazeera at the beginning of this month.