Hydration breaks are one of the most unpopular things of this fairly unpopular World Cup (with exorbitant ticket prices, players and staff for several countries being mistreated or even denied entrance) because it is obvious to everyone that FIFA has taken a necessity (allowing players to rest and drink water when playing in extreme heat conditions) and turned it into a commercial ploy to make more money out of advertisements by introducing 3-minute commercial breaks every 23 or so minutes.
In stadiums, fans are booing the hydration pauses, and at home, everyone makes comments about the pauses with varying degrees of humour, depending on how emotionally invested they are in the match.
Players and coaches are mostly openly criticising these mandatory pauses, which only really make sense in the matches with extreme temperatures: most, thankfully, are played at normal temperatures. "I think that it interrupts and changes the identity of a football match much more than I thought", said England coach Thomas Tuchel. "I had hydration breaks before when it was really, really hot and needed, but they were shorter. It breaks the match almost in four quarters."
Infantino on hydration pauses: "Maybe it's good"
FIFA President Gianni Infantino defends these breaks, and said in an interview with SNTV on Tuesday that they may be used at future World Cups, explaining they are only here for sporting reasons and they don't make extra revenue for these advertisements because contracts had been signed before the decision to introduce hydration breaks.
"Maybe the coach can reassess certain situations, correct certain mistakes. The players get a little rest and come back in full speed. Well, is that bad necessarily? Maybe it's good", said Infantino, also saying they have improved the qualify of the game by allowing the players to have these breaks.
"We've never seen 90 minutes in a tournament like this played in such an intensity", argued Infantino. "Until the last second of the match, players attack and so on. Maybe, maybe not, but maybe it's also a bit thanks to this little break that the players have and after they can go back on the field and show what they can do".
Finally, Infantino confirmed they may keep them for future tournaments, and defended that they are mandatory. "If we were to use hydration breaks only in those matches where it was too hot and not in the other matches, we would give an advantage or a disadvantage to some of the coaches or some of the teams", he added.