Bonus: Are the World Cup's hydration breaks here to stay?

**Alex Ritson** (0:00)
Hello, I'm Alex Ritson from the Global News Podcast. As the World Cup reaches its knockout stage, we thought you'd enjoy hearing from another BBC World Service podcast more than the score. They're telling the stories of teams, trends and fandoms changing the game in the way the stats don't show. And in this episode, they examine one of this year's most controversial developments, the introduction of mandatory hydration breaks. You can listen to the whole episode right here. I hope you enjoy it.

**Lee James** (0:30)
Hello, I'm Lee James and this is More Than the Score, the BBC World Service podcast that's looking at the stories beyond the score lines at the FIFA Men's World Cup. FIFA has introduced mandatory hydration breaks for this World Cup. They've essentially split the games into four quarters. So who's benefiting more, the players or the broadcasters?
Well, it's become a familiar scene during this World Cup. The referee blows the whistle to stop the game 22 minutes into each half to allow players to rehydrate. These mandatory three-minute drinks breaks at all 104 games have been introduced to help players cope with the stifling heat and humidity levels in Mexico, Canada and the United States. It allows coaches to make tactical changes, and the broadcasters can, and many have, cashed in with lucrative commercial breaks while players halted. It's become one of the major talking points of this summer's World Cup, attracting criticism from the likes of the Netherlands captain Virgil van Dijk and the US head coach Mauricio Pochettino. I'm in one of the host cities, Toronto, in Canada. So what do the fans here feel about it? I went along to the Nathan Phillips Square, a large open plaza in the centre of the city. It's where there's usually an ice rink. Now there are mini football pitches with children playing games and a large screen showing the matches.
We're watching on the big screen here in Toronto, the Argentina-Algeria game. It's just gone to the first hydration break. Let's find out what everyone here makes of it.

**SPEAKER_4** (2:04)
For the players, it's a good team, but for us, I don't like it. I really don't like it.

**SPEAKER_5** (2:11)
I think it's a good thing because some games are going to be very, very, very hot. Some are not, but some are going to be very hot. And it gives them time to kind of strategise and things like that. So I have nothing against it.

**Lee James** (2:23)
How about you? What do you think?

**SPEAKER_6** (2:24)
Same, same. I mean, I mean, having all these people, you know, doing hydration and, you know, before, that wasn't happening. So most of the strategy, I guess, they can sit down and talk will be the plus for that.

**SPEAKER_7** (2:35)
For the hydration break, right, I know people are complaining about it, but there are always positives.
If you are a coach and you know how to leverage the hydration break, it can be a positive. It is summertime out here. People are playing in Miami. It is over 100 degrees out there. You know, we don't want the player to collapse on the field of play, right? So I think the hydration break is good. I don't have any problem with that.

**SPEAKER_4** (2:57)
I don't think it's necessary.

**SPEAKER_5** (2:58)
It's just stopping the momentum of the games.

**Lee James** (3:01)
I don't feel it's helping anyway.

**SPEAKER_4** (3:04)
It's just for the advertisement and making more money for FIFA. That's all.

**Lee James** (3:08)
So that's the view of the fans from here in Toronto. We joined on More Than the Score from Toronto by Matt Cullen, Olympic and sports commentator with the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. Hello, Matt.

**Bukayo Saka** (3:18)
Hello, Lee.

**Lee James** (3:18)
Good to have you with us. And by the BBC's tactics correspondent, Umir Irfan. Hello, Umir.

**Bukayo Saka** (3:23)
Hello.

**Lee James** (3:24)
You're OK. Welcome both of you.
Matt, there are differences of opinion there from the fans. You can understand why it's become the big talking point at the World Cup.

**Matt Cullen** (3:31)
Well, certainly it's a big talking point. It's a big change, particularly going to commercial breaks. Controversial, certainly. Some like it, some do not like it. But it is a big change in the footballing or the soccer landscape here as we know it. But when temperatures do rise in North America during the summertime, upwards of 35, 40 degrees sometimes, hydration breaks do come into place, I believe around the 25 degree mark usually. And so it is common for football fans in Canada and the United States to see this type of thing, but just not so regularly, especially with the commercial breaks.