More often than not controversy over liquid refreshment at a football World Cup focuses on the unsavoury antics of England’s travelling support. But, in the US these past two weeks, the focus has been less on the booze and more on the boos that have greeted that dreaded moment, roughly at the midpoint of each half, when play must stop for a ‘hydration break’. 

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These hiatuses were introduced, as so many Fifa initiatives are, with all the good will in the world. The idea was that when the temperature tops 32°C, the players should get a chance to take a short break to get extra fluids on board for fear of dehydration. They were used extensively in last summer’s Fifa Club World Cup in America, at which point US TV advertising execs, for whom 45 minutes of break-less sporting action are anathema, may have taken note. 

In a move that may not be unconnected to this new window of advertising opportunity, Gianni Infantino, the Fifa president, had the brainwave of implementing a hydration break 22 minutes into each half........

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