Every single match at the 2026 World Cup in North America must include a hydration break during the middle of each half.
Water breaks, or ‘hydration breaks’ as they are now being called at this tournament, are not completely new and have been used at previous football events when temperatures get too high.
However, the North American World Cup has them in every single match, no matter the temperature. Now, former England strikers turned pundits, Alan Shearer and Gary Lineker, have become the latest to express their displeasure at the breaks.
Alan Shearer and Gary Lineker unhappy with hydration breaks at 2026 World Cup
Talk about the hydration breaks and FIFA’s decision to implement them in every match has been one of the biggest topics of conversation this summer.
Now, when speaking on The Rest Is Football, which is currently streaming on Netflix during the World Cup, Shearer called them ‘nonsense’.
He said: “They’re nonsense, the hydration breaks. They’re playing in air-conned stadiums, it was 21 degrees in there.”
Lineker expressed a similar view, suggesting they were introduced so there could be commercial breaks during games amid ‘the Americanisation of our sport’.
He stated: “We know it’s not a hydration break. It’s a commercial break. I mean, it’s a game of four quarters, it’s the Americanisation of our sport in many ways and another way to make a few bob I think.”
England fans booed hydration breaks during their first game of the World Cup against Croatia on Wednesday.
But that is unlikely to stop them from happening, with FIFA already explaining the reason behind every game having two breaks.
Back in December 2025, the organisation released a statement saying: “Players at the FIFA World Cup 2026 will benefit from three-minute hydration breaks in each half of games as FIFA prioritises player welfare throughout next summer’s tournament co-hosted by Canada, Mexico and the United States.
“In a streamlined and simplified version of the breaks used at some previous tournaments, including the FIFA Club World Cup 2025, the referee will stop the game 22 minutes into each half to allow players to rehydrate. There will be no weather or temperature condition in place, with the breaks being called by the referee in all games, to ensure equal conditions for all teams, in all matches.”
