FIFA introduced mandatory hydration breaks for every single match at the 2026 World Cup. Not just the ones played in sweltering heat. Every match, every half, no exceptions. And the players are not impressed.
Virgil van Dijk, captain of the Netherlands, became the most prominent voice against the policy after his team’s match against Japan on June 14. His assessment was blunt: the breaks disrupt the flow of the game and are not viewer-friendly.
What FIFA actually changed
FIFA mandated three-minute hydration breaks in every half of all 104 matches at the 2026 tournament. That’s regardless of whether a game is being played in a climate-controlled stadium in Seattle or under the midday sun in Guadalajara. A blanket rule, applied with zero flexibility based on local conditions.
Previous tournaments treated hydration breaks as a situational tool. Referees could implement them when temperatures or humidity crossed certain thresholds. This is the first time FIFA has applied the policy uniformly across an entire tournament, transforming what was once an emergency measure into a structural feature of every game.
