Noel Gallagher has taken aim at football’s planned new spectacle, joking that he would rather be doing the half-time raffle “for a leg of lamb” than fronting a World Cup Half Time Show. Speaking on Talk Sport, he made clear he wants no part of the 2026 idea, saying: “No, I don’t like changes in football.”
The timing matters because the first World Cup Half Time Show is already being planned for 2026, with Chris Martin curating it and Madonna, Shakira and BTS among the names linked to it. For readers searching how long is half time, the new format is the reason the question is suddenly live: football is about to add a show built for the sport’s biggest stage, and the clock around it has become part of the story.
Gallagher’s reaction lands with extra force because he was once invited by the FA in the 1990s to get involved in an official England team song, a reminder that football and pop have crossed paths before. He said the invitation came when Ocean Colour Scene and Ian McCulloch were involved in the same world, and he drew a line between that and the new halftime plan by saying he does not like the razzmatazz of football, which has, in his words, been functioning perfectly for hundreds of years.
That is where his complaint bites. The 2026 World Cup Half Time Show is being sold as a fresh addition, but Gallagher dismissed the people attached to it as not really football people, and that is the split at the heart of the reaction: the sport’s biggest event is leaning into spectacle, while one of football’s most outspoken voices is arguing that the game does not need it.
The other detail readers will want is still missing. The first show is set for 2026, but how long is half time in this new format has not been stated, which leaves the most practical part of the idea unanswered even as three opening ceremonies are lined up for the World Cup — at the opening game in Mexico City, at the first Canadian-hosted game on Friday, and on Saturday in Los Angeles. For now, Gallagher has done what he does best: he has reduced a grand plan to a blunt joke and left football to decide how much show it really wants.
