FIFA has still not said how long the World Cup final half-time show will run, leaving World Cup TV rights holders waiting for an answer next month’s final now needs. Commercial broadcasters have repeated their requests for clarity, but they have received no confirmation on whether the break will stay close to a normal interval or stretch far beyond it.
The dispute is practical, not theatrical. Rights holders say advertising teams need to sell inventory around the break, and one source said they had planned for a musical production lasting 12 to 15 minutes. Another said the interval could run 25 to 30 minutes once stage construction and removal are factored in. That is where the planning gets messy: the laws of the game overseen by the International Football Association Board say half-time cannot exceed 15 minutes unless the referee agrees otherwise.
Chris Martin is curating the spectacle at the final, and his name adds to the expectation that FIFA wants this to feel bigger than a routine interval. He also turned up in a surprise performance at last year’s Club World Cup final at the same venue, when the break in play lasted 24 minutes. That earlier show offered a clue about what can happen when sport and stage production collide, even if it did not settle how the final would be handled this time.
FIFA has declined to confirm the length of half-time, and that silence now matters because the final is approaching while commercial decisions remain open. The governing body has already increased pre-match entertainment at this World Cup, with opening ceremonies planned for the first games in each host country and major shows attached to several fixtures. Shakira and Burna Boy are set for Mexico against South Africa in the Azteca Stadium on Thursday, Alanis Morissette and Michael Bublé will headline in Toronto on Friday, and Katy Perry, Lisa, Rema, Anitta and Future are booked for Los Angeles before the US meet Paraguay.
The pattern points in one direction: FIFA is building a tournament around bigger entertainment blocks, but it has not yet explained how that ambition fits inside a half-time interval that the game’s laws still cap at 15 minutes. Until that is resolved, broadcasters are left selling around a gap they cannot measure with confidence, and the final’s first half-time show remains as much a scheduling problem as a performance.
