Everyone’s Mad at the World Cup’s New ‘Hydration Breaks’—Except Mr. Moneybags Over Here
Everyone’s Mad at the World Cup’s New ‘Hydration Breaks’—Except Mr. Moneybags Over Here
世界杯新增“补水时间”引发众怒——除了那位赚得盆满钵满的“金主”
Tune into any World Cup match in the US, Mexico, or Canada this summer, and you will find that around the 22nd and 67th minute of any game, the plays will stop. For the first time ever, FIFA has introduced three-minute hydration breaks, which are officially framed as a player welfare measure to combat extreme heat. The breaks will take place regardless of the weather outside, even on relatively mild days in New York or Los Angeles.
今年夏天，无论你收看在美国、墨西哥还是加拿大举办的任何一场世界杯比赛，都会发现比赛在第22分钟和第67分钟左右会暂停。国际足联（FIFA）史无前例地引入了三分钟的“补水时间”，官方将其定义为应对极端高温、保障球员福利的措施。无论室外天气如何，即使是在纽约或洛杉矶气候相对温和的日子里，这些暂停也会照常进行。
While FIFA does not break down exactly how much revenue is tied to these new in-game stoppages, the intermissions introduce predictable and guaranteed commercial windows into live broadcasts, creating new advertising inventory. There has been backlash from fans and players, with many arguing that the commercial interruptions disrupt the flow of a sport defined by continuous play.
虽然国际足联并未详细说明这些新增的比赛暂停能带来多少收入，但这些间歇期为直播提供了可预测且有保障的商业窗口，从而创造了新的广告库存。此举遭到了球迷和球员的强烈抵制，许多人认为这种商业干扰破坏了足球这项以连续性为核心的运动的流畅感。
Ghazi Saoud, a 26-year-old half-Lebanese, half-Norwegian football fan living in Chicago, who is rooting for Norway and Morocco this World Cup, describes the hiatuses as “concealed advertisement breaks.” Saoud argues that part of what makes football unique is that it has been played largely the same way for more than 150 years: 90 minutes, two 45-minute halves and predictably continuous play. Water breaks have always existed, he says, but only when they were actually needed; Saoud, like many others, believes scheduled breaks change the rhythm of the game.
居住在芝加哥的26岁球迷加齐·萨乌德（Ghazi Saoud）拥有黎巴嫩和挪威双重血统，本届世界杯他支持挪威和摩洛哥队。他将这些暂停称为“变相的广告时间”。萨乌德认为，足球之所以独特，部分原因在于它在过去150多年里基本保持着相同的比赛方式：90分钟比赛，上下半场各45分钟，且比赛过程具有可预测的连续性。他说，补水一直存在，但那是在真正需要的时候；和许多人一样，萨乌德认为强制性的固定暂停改变了比赛的节奏。
“I see the argument under conditions of climate stress, but you need a break, you need an extra drink—you don’t need three minutes,” says David Goldblatt, one of soccer’s leading historians and the author of The Ball Is Round: A Global History of Football. “Nobody needs three minutes to drink a glass of water. Why are they three minutes?” Fox, he notes, is estimated to be making about $250 million in the US on commercials that run during hydration breaks, according to expert analysis given to BBC Sport.
“我理解在气候压力下的考量，但你需要休息、需要额外喝水，并不意味着你需要三分钟，”足球界权威历史学家、《球是圆的：足球全球史》（The Ball Is Round: A Global History of Football）作者大卫·戈德布拉特（David Goldblatt）表示，“没人需要三分钟来喝一杯水。为什么非要三分钟？”他指出，根据提供给BBC体育频道的专家分析，福克斯体育（Fox）预计将通过补水期间播放的广告在美国获得约2.5亿美元的收入。
The tension over these breaks is really a fight over what the World Cup is becoming. Around $3.9 billion is expected to come from broadcast rights alone, meaning networks like Fox in the US or the BBC in the UK are paying FIFA to stream the World Cup, and another $1.8 billion is expected from sponsorship and marketing. Based on forecasts from WARC Media, a UK-based advertising research and intelligence firm that tracks global media spend, the tournament is expected to inject around $10.5 billion into the global advertising market in 2026.
围绕这些暂停的紧张局势，本质上是关于世界杯未来走向的博弈。仅转播权一项预计就将带来约39亿美元的收入，这意味着美国的福克斯（Fox）或英国的BBC等电视网正在向国际足联支付费用以转播世界杯，此外预计还有18亿美元来自赞助和营销。根据追踪全球媒体支出的英国广告研究与情报公司WARC Media的预测，本届赛事预计将在2026年为全球广告市场注入约105亿美元。
For some sports experts, this broader commercialization effort by FIFA reflects something else: a shift toward American-style sports entertainment. “I think you do see a definite Americanization in this particular World Cup,” says Mark Dyreson, professor of kinesiology and sports history at Penn State. “I think what FIFA is doing is sort of normal and natural in the course of business although it offends a lot of longtime soccer connoisseurs.”
对于一些体育专家来说，国际足联这种更广泛的商业化努力反映了另一件事：向美式体育娱乐模式的转变。“我认为在本届世界杯中，你确实看到了明显的‘美国化’，”宾夕法尼亚州立大学运动机能学与体育史教授马克·戴瑞森（Mark Dyreson）表示，“我认为国际足联的做法在商业运作中是正常且自然的，尽管这冒犯了许多资深的足球鉴赏家。”
Goldblatt cautions against treating the 2026 World Cup as a sudden turning point. “Football’s been commercializing like crazy for 40 years,” he says. “It’s been taking lessons from the United States sports market in a hundred different ways for the last 30 or 40 years.”
戈德布拉特提醒人们不要将2026年世界杯视为一个突如其来的转折点。“足球在过去40年里一直在疯狂地商业化，”他说，“在过去的30到40年里，它一直在以各种方式向美国体育市场取经。”
In many ways, the trend was already visible in Qatar. The 2022 World Cup was reported as the most-watched tournament on record, engaging with more than 5 billion viewers, which helped FIFA generate $7.5 billion across the 2019-2022 cycle. Broadcast rights brought in roughly $2.96 billion in 2022 alone, compared with the nearly $3.9 billion FIFA is projecting for 2026.
在许多方面，这种趋势在卡塔尔世界杯时就已经显现。据报道，2022年世界杯是有史以来观看人数最多的赛事，吸引了超过50亿观众，这帮助国际足联在2019-2022周期内创造了75亿美元的收入。仅2022年，转播权就带来了约29.6亿美元的收入，而国际足联预计2026年的这一数字将接近39亿美元。
Still, some experts to argue the hydration breaks are less about money and more about adapting the World Cup to a changing media landscape. Simon Chadwick, a professor of sport and geopolitical economy at SKEMA Business School, says FIFA is actively trying to stay competitive in an increasingly crowded sports and entertainment market, where leagues from the NBA to Formula 1 are all competing for the same audiences, attention, and screen time. “In some ways, what is happening with FIFA is FIFA’s attempt to maintain market share and stay relevant,” he says.
尽管如此，一些专家认为，补水时间与其说是为了钱，不如说是为了让世界杯适应不断变化的媒体环境。SKEMA商学院体育与地缘政治经济学教授西蒙·查德威克（Simon Chadwick）表示，国际足联正积极努力在日益拥挤的体育娱乐市场中保持竞争力，因为从NBA到一级方程式赛车（F1）等各大联盟都在争夺相同的观众、注意力和屏幕时间。“在某种程度上，国际足联现在的做法是其试图维持市场份额并保持影响力的尝试，”他说。
The focus on the US market is no accident, Chadwick adds. “FIFA’s intention was always to reap the commercial benefits of hosting a tournament in the biggest domestic sporting economy in the world,” he says.
查德威克补充说，对美国市场的关注并非偶然。“国际足联的初衷始终是在全球最大的国内体育经济体中举办赛事，以获取商业利益，”他说。
Hydration breaks also come amid an undeniably warming climate. FIFA defended the hydration-break policy in a statement, saying the stoppages will take place in every match regardless of temperature “to ensure equal conditions for all teams, in all matches.” The player safety measures are only likely to become more relevant as climate scientists predict the hottest year ever recorded could arrive by 2030. Chadwick says he sees a practical logic behind the blanket policy, arguing that it is easier for FIFA to apply the same rule to every match than debate where the temperature threshold for a break should begin.
补水时间的引入也正值气候变暖不可否认的背景下。国际足联在一份声明中为补水政策辩护，称无论气温如何，每场比赛都将进行暂停，“以确保所有球队在所有比赛中享有平等的条件”。随着气候科学家预测有记录以来最热的一年可能在2030年到来，这些球员安全措施可能会变得更加重要。查德威克表示，他看到了这一“一刀切”政策背后的实际逻辑，认为对国际足联而言，对每场比赛执行相同的规则，比争论补水的温度阈值应该设定在哪里要容易得多。
FIFA rejects the idea that the breaks were introduced to create new advertising inventory. A FIFA source says most broadcast deals were signed before the hydration breaks were announced in December 2025, arguing the policy was instead a response to player complaints about competing in extreme heat during last summer’s Club World Cup in the US.
国际足联否认引入补水时间是为了创造新的广告库存。一位国际足联消息人士称，大多数转播协议是在2025年12月宣布补水时间之前签署的，并辩称该政策是对去年夏天美国世俱杯期间球员们关于在极端高温下比赛的抱怨所做出的回应。
Hydration breaks are only one many shifts soccer fans are contending with during this year’s World Cup. FIFA has already priced many fans out through dynamic ticket pricing, despite opposition from Football Supporters Europe (FSE), and is now bringing another Super Bowl staple to football’s biggest stage with a halftime show. Shakira, Madonna, and BTS are set to perform at the World Cup final in New Jersey on July 19, adding another entertainment layer to a tournament increasingly focused on the spectacle beyond the match itself.
补水时间只是今年世界杯期间足球迷们所面临的诸多变化之一。尽管遭到了欧洲足球支持者协会（FSE）的反对，国际足联还是通过动态票价将许多球迷拒之门外，现在又将“超级碗”的另一大标配——中场秀——引入了足球最高舞台。夏奇拉（Shakira）、麦当娜（Madonna）和防弹少年团（BTS）定于7月19日在新泽西州的世界杯决赛中表演，这为一项日益关注比赛本身之外的奇观的赛事增添了又一层娱乐色彩。