World Cup 2026: What players, coaches and fans think of hydration breaks

This wasn’t the first game to feature boos during a hydration break, and the wave of distaste for them among fans appears to be gaining momentum.

On Tuesday, in Norway’s match against Iraq in Boston, the stoppage in play was met with boos from the crowd; The temperature at the time was acceptably above 23C.

Iraq conceded the match, which ended goalless at halftime, four minutes after the game restarted and was defeated 4-1.

During Sweden’s 5-1 win over Tunisia on Monday and Spain’s goalless draw with Cape Verde the same day, there were loud boos for a stoppage in the match played at air-conditioned Atlanta Stadium.

The first hydration break given in the Ghana-Panama match after England beat Croatia was also greeted with applause.

Hydration breaks turned games into four quarters instead of two halves; This was a worrying situation for some of the England fans who booed at the break.

“It’s like the Americanization of football here,” one of them said.

“This is the game turning into quarters and I don’t like it. I understand why people were booing and I was one of them.”

But some supporters see benefits for them.

“I think they were poorly marketed,” another fan said.

“If these were not called hydration breaks and were called rest breaks, then not everyone would miss a goal.

“I think we need to think about this in a new way, institutional [bodies] “They get what they want, we get what we want, and everyone’s happy.”