Hydration breaks introduced at this World Cup are having more of an impact on matches than initially thought and break the momentum of a match, England coach Thomas Tuchel said on Monday. FIFA introduced three-minute hydration breaks halfway through each half due to sweltering temperatures in host cities in the United States, Canada and Mexico, but opinions were divided.
Critics say the breaks, which effectively divide the game into four quarters, simply allow broadcasters to take advantage of commercial breaks for more than two minutes, and that this has been a point of contention among the sport’s purists. «I think it (hydration break) interrupts and changes the identity of the football game, much more than I thought,» Tuchel told a news conference ahead of his team’s Group L match against Ghana on Tuesday.
«So of course I had hydration breaks before, when it was really hot and necessary, but they were shorter and only lasted a few games. So now the game is almost broken into four quarters, and I think it changes the character of the game more than I thought.»
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Although not all matches are played during the day, hydration breaks are mandated in every match at the World Cup in the interests of fairness and uniformity, even if weather conditions do not actually require it.
The temperature in Boston is not expected to rise above 20 degrees Celsius on Tuesday.
“As a coach, of course, I like having an influence and having my team together, but in general I think I like football more when it is played in one go, in one half, because it builds momentum,” Tuchel said.
“It’s hard to build momentum, and it’s hard to maintain momentum… it takes place over an extended period of time and it just adds to the hallmark of the beautiful game, and it (hydration break) takes something away from it.”
Published on June 23, 2026
