FIFA is reportedly preparing to stretch half-time at the World Cup final to somewhere between 25 and 30 minutes — roughly double the conventional break — to accommodate the tournament's first-ever final halftime show at New York New Jersey Stadium. The longer timetable has not been publicly confirmed by FIFA, and should be treated as a reported operational plan rather than a settled amendment to the match schedule.
The technical conflict is straightforward. Law 7 of the Laws of the Game entitles players to a half-time interval not exceeding 15 minutes. Competition rules must state the duration, and the interval can be altered only with the referee's permission, but the published law still sets 15 minutes as the ceiling. A 25-to-30-minute pause would not be a minor scheduling tweak; it would need a clear explanation of how match authorities intend to apply that provision.
FIFA has confirmed the entertainment component. The governing body describes an 11-minute live broadcast featuring Madonna, Shakira, BTS and Justin Bieber, with Burna Boy, Gustavo Dudamel and the PS22 Chorus also listed alongside Coldplay. The final takes place on Sunday, 19 July.
What remains unannounced is the full interval window needed to move production equipment and performers onto the field, deliver the show, and clear the playing surface in time for the second-half restart.
That distinction between performance time and interval time matters. An 11-minute show cannot simply be dropped into an ordinary 15-minute break: players and staff still need time to leave the pitch, receive tactical and medical instructions, return through the tunnel and complete any permitted re-warm-up, while production crews install and remove staging around those football operations. The reported 25-to-30-minute figure reflects that total logistical window, not the duration of the music alone.
From a performance perspective, the concern isn't that an extra quarter-hour automatically causes injury — it's the break in routine at the highest-intensity point of the tournament. Players normally manage hydration, treatment and tactical adjustment against a predictable restart, and a substantially longer pause could require revised warm-up procedures, particularly for substitutes and for starters whose muscle temperature drops while they wait indoors.
The referee's role also needs precision. Law 7 allows the referee to approve an alteration to the interval, but that is different from improvising an event schedule on matchday. Teams, match officials and broadcasters would need a single documented restart plan in place before kick-off, including the warning sequence for players to leave the dressing room and the point at which the field returns to sporting control once the production has cleared it.
For now, three facts can be separated cleanly: the final and its 11-minute show are official; the Laws of the Game retain a 15-minute half-time maximum; and a 25-to-30-minute interval is being reported without a matching public FIFA timetable. Until that operational notice appears, the scale of the extension — and the mechanism used to authorise it — remains the unresolved part of the story.
