The Silent Change In Soccer: From 45-Minute Halves To Four Quarters

The first time FIFA announced cooling breaks in World Cup matches, in 2014, the matter ended up in court. Players, worried about the heat and humidity in Brazil, did not trust soccer’s world governing body, which left the decision for each match to the discretion of its medical staff. The players went to a labor court and obtained an order that the pauses would be automatic at the 30th minute of each half if temperatures reached 32 degrees Celsius. Twelve years later, FIFA has mandated three-minute hydration breaks at the 22nd minute of every match at the 2026 World Cup, regardless of temperature or humidity. The move, announced as being for the “well-being of the players,” signals a fundamental change in how the game is played: from two 45-minute halves, as it has been since 1897, to four quarters of roughly 22 minutes.

FIFA’s change, announced on December 5, 2025, opened a path followed three months later by the South American federation, Conmebol. On March 5, 2026, Conmebol said it would include “a rehydration break of up to 90 seconds in each playing period” in all matches of the two continental club tournaments it runs, the Copa Libertadores and the Copa Sudamericana. As with the World Cup, the pause will be automatic: “It is not related to temperature indicators or external weather conditions.”

IFAB, the guardian body of the laws of the game, allows competition regulations to include pauses of between 90 seconds and three minutes, which it calls a “cooling break,” although it specifies: “If certain meteorological conditions occur (high temperature and humidity).” It also acknowledges that extending pauses to all matches, many of which will be played in high heat and humidity, helps standardize the conditions under which a tournament is contested.

This standardization also helps organize and monetize the broadcast derivative that both bodies highlighted. FIFA chose a meeting in Washington with global rights-holding broadcasters to announce the mandatory rehydration breaks. Privately, the organization led by Gianni Infantino distributed guidelines on broadcasts, according to The Athletic, which obtained the documents.

Broadcasters will be able to cut away from the pitch and run advertising, as happens during halftime. They must wait 20 seconds after the referee signals the pause and must return 30 seconds before play resumes, giving them a new two-minute, 10-second window for ads. They also have the option of keeping the stadium feed and splitting the screen to run advertising in part of it. In that case, they may show only FIFA official sponsors.

Conmebol has included audiovisual instructions in the regulations that introduce the 90-second pause in each period. In the Libertadores and Sudamericana the transmissions are not cut. Cameras move in on the huddle between players and coaches on the touchline. “Besides its sporting and physiological function, this moment will allow the game to be shown from a closer perspective,” the text says.

Precisely what happens on the field during these stoppages represents a fundamental shift in the very essence of what soccer has been for more than a century and a half — a fact that has been evident ever since this mechanism, which is contingent on temperature and humidity conditions, was introduced. The decisions made by FIFA and Conmebol institutionalize pauses that coaches have used as timeouts to influence the course of matches.

This was the case with Real Madrid during last summer’s Club World Cup in the United States, where cooling breaks were used amid excessive heat and humidity. Xabi Alonso helped change the dynamics of several matches with his instructions during the pauses. Against Pachuca, Raúl Asensio received a red card in the 7th minute and the team could not find its shape. Four minutes after the hydration pause, Jude Bellingham scored to make it 1-0 and Madrid went on to win 3-1. “We talked after the sending-off about them staying compact,” Alonso explained. “And that once we got past [that phase], they could join the attack. It isn’t something we worked on during the week, we talked about it in the cooling break.”

Not all coaches agree with the change. France coach Didier Deschamps lashed out at those stoppages in a television interview after the friendly they played on March 26, 2026, against Brazil in Boston, in which there was a three-minute pause in each period: “It’s good for you as a TV network, to have an advertising break, but those three minutes change football completely. It doesn’t matter which team. If a team is enjoying a good spell, three minutes stop everything.”

For broadcasters, indeed, it is a valuable change, as Mercedes Blánquez, head of marketing and advertising at Movistar+, explains: “These are qualified ad slots. In our strategy as a platform we place great emphasis on ad breaks that are high value for both the user and the brands; shorter pauses that generate greater attention and awareness,” she says.

From the broadcasters’ side of the business, it is very useful to know in advance that every match will have three-minute pauses in each period. Predictability simplifies commercialization and brands would like the new four-quarter structure to remain beyond the World Cup. “It’s key,” Blánquez says, “that it be included in the schedules and advertising assets that licensees of TV rights can monetize, and that it helps them recoup the large investments in those rights.” FIFA and Conmebol have opened the way to a new way of selling soccer and playing it, and the World Cup will also serve as a huge proof of concept.

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