England coach Thomas Tuchel slams World Cup hydration breaks for ‘changing game’s identity’

England football coach Thomas Tuchel said the hydration breaks at the ongoing FIFA World Cup 2026 take away ‘a characteristic of this beautiful game’ by ‘changing its identity’. At this year’s 48-team tournament, each of 104 matches is bound to be stopped for three minutes during each half for cooling breaks regardless of the weather or whether the stadium is air-conditioned. However, an exemption came on Monday (Jun 22) during France’s game against Iraq, which had no hydration break in the second half following a two-hour delay due to thunderstorms in Philadelphia.

While the experts have labelled it an uncalled-for commercial break for the TV viewers worldwide, the crowd has booed the hydration breaks at several stadiums across the US, Canada and Mexico, the three co-hosts of this World Cup.

Speaking to the media ahead of England’s second group stage game against Ghana, Tuchel expressed his deep frustration, saying, "I think that it interrupts and changes the identity of a football match much more than I thought. Of course, I had hydration breaks before when it was really, really hot and needed, but they were shorter.

"They were just in a few matches. Now it is a point of fairness to every team. Now it breaks the match almost in four quarters, and it changes the characteristic of the match more than I thought,” he added.

Tuchel said that with mandatory pauses midway through the matches, teams lose momentum they created by then, which leaves them in a position to restart again in each half.

FIFA World Cup 2026 Live on Zee5 Photograph: (WION)

"I like it as a coach to have influence and have my team together, but overall, I think I like football when it is played in one go, in one half. It builds momentum; it is part of the game.

"It is hard to build momentum and hard to keep the momentum. This is the battle on the field between the players on the field; it plays out in a longer period of time. It just adds to the characteristic of the beautiful game. It takes away from it. But on a point of fairness, of course it makes sense that everyone gets it,” he noted.

Speaking on tackling that in England’s next World Cup group stage fixture, Tuchel said, "We will try to use it, of course.

"We have a plan in mind, but not too much of it, because I don't want to limit myself in the response to what the game needs.

"I want to use my intuition and the experience, and to actually see what's happening.

"So, I always want to be able to actually react to what's happening on the pitch,” he concluded.

Meanwhile, England leads Group L, with one win against Croatia in their opener. They beat the 2018 runners-up 4-2, with Harry Kane scoring a brace.