The matches have been entertaining, but if you’ve spent even five minutes on social media, you’d think that the biggest story of this World Cup isn’t the goals, but everything happening around them.
The crux of the matter is now FIFA’s decision to introduce mandatory stoppages midway in each half. Many soccer fans are calling it “four quarters in disguise”, and critics claim it was another avenue to make more money through commercials. Officially, they’re hydration breaks meant to protect players from the North American summer heat.
However, many aren’t buying that explanation and are not shy in venting their frustration. Some of the reactions I’ve seen include:
“This irritates me so much, I actually switch to something else during those periods 🤦🏾♂️”
“I have never felt this unattached to the world cup in my life”
“This whole thing becomes a bigger shitshow each day that goes by.”
“Americans are capitalist to a great fault. Anything they touches dies. Just look at Chelsea.”
“A very unnecessary and annoying thing. I cringe every time they go for their so called “hydration break”.. I am so annoyed”
“This is the worst world cup in history. Americans are doing too much ffs.”
“It makes the game boring and the big companies will forced Europes into this 22.5mins 4sets games.”
“Besides the issue of advertisement, hydration break in each half of football because of the weather didn’t start at this world cup. Having noted that, the ads added extra time to the hydration break and taken the shine out of the matches. It’s become too boring.”
“Killing the game. Curaçao were on a confidence run and boom!!!…Hydration break, that’s how their run died. America…killing the game we grew to love”.
“We’re slowly turning the world’s game into another American sport.”
“This isn’t about hydration. It’s about selling more commercials.”
The frustration only grew with broadcasts cutting to adverts during the breaks, with some viewers even claiming they missed the restart of play. That only reinforced the belief among critics that commercial interests are starting to outweigh the traditions of football.
And that’s not all critics have for the US World Cup.
Many fans argue that the U.S. was never the ideal place to host a summer World Cup because of the intense heat in its cities. Then came the visa issues that have reportedly made travel difficult for some supporters and even officials, while many complain about the very long travel distances between host cities when compared to previous tournaments.
Then there’s the broader feeling that the tournament is becoming “too Americanised”, which again stems from the increased stoppages, commercials, entertainment breaks, and less of the uninterrupted flow that has always made football unique.
Of course, not everyone agrees. Plenty people argue that the introduction of hydration breaks was okay to protect players, and others point out that most of these decisions come from FIFA and broadcasters, and not the U.S. itself.
“I don’t agree with the advertising part but those players really need that water break because playing under that scorching sun is really tough for any human being”, one reviewer wrote.
Right now, a lot of online conversation isn’t about who’ll win the World Cup. It’s about whether football is slowly changing into something longtime fans cannot recognize.
And that’s probably the biggest own goal of the tournament so far.
