Arsene Wenger said Saturday he accepted that the hydration breaks used at this year’s World Cup were not universally popular and said FIFA will assess whether to implement them in the same way in the future.
Wenger, FIFA’s head of global football development, told a briefing on the eve of the World Cup final between Spain and Argentina: “Sometimes people didn’t like it and we have to analyse after the World Cup what the impact was.”
For this World Cup, FIFA brought in three-minute hydration breaks midway through each half — regardless of the weather, even for matches played in cool conditions or under a closed roof.
It said the motivation for their introduction was a commitment to player welfare, but critics also saw it as a way to generate more income by selling advertising during the breaks in action.
“It didn’t look to me that it changed the results, but we are here to serve people that watch football and we will come to conclusions afterwards,” Wenger added.
