🚨Roy Keane on Virgil van Dijk speaking about hydration breaks at the current World Cup:
🗣Roy Keane:
I actually agree with Van Dijk on this.
Look, if players are speaking about something that affects the game, people should listen. But for me, some of these changes in football are getting ridiculous.
We all understand the weather is hot, fine. But football has always been played in different conditions. You don’t keep stopping the game every few minutes for hydration breaks. It kills the rhythm, it kills the intensity, and that’s a big part of football gone.
Let’s be honest, a lot of this doesn’t feel necessary. It feels like the game is being adjusted around everything except the football itself. And now you’ve got constant stoppages, cameras cutting in, adverts everywhere… it all feels a bit over the top.
If Qatar could deal with the heat by actually improving stadium conditions, then surely there are better solutions than breaking up matches every 20 minutes.
At the end of the day, football should be about the game. Not interruptions, not commercials, not stopping every time there’s a chance to squeeze something else in.
So here we have an official at the World Cup in the US literally holding up the complete match with his arm in the air, not for injuries, not for football reasons,but because the TV network hasn’t finished selling their ads.
At this point, it’s not a match anymore, it’s a broadcast schedule with a ball occasionally rolling around.
A World Cup official stopping play mid-game so the broadcasters can finish their commercials.
Nothing says “beautiful game” like football taking orders from an ad break. It’s not a sport at that point,it’s a TV product with a pitch attached.
Imagine watching a World Cup match where the referee is told to wait because the commercials aren’t done yet.
That’s not football, that’s a glorified ad break pretending to be a sporting event.
Just some meaningless content between commercial slots.
Soccer has always been defined by free-flowing, unbroken action. But for the World Cup in America, FIFA is using “hydration breaks” to shoehorn in commercials. 🔗 https://t.co/pFuy90orj6
Can’t help but find it funny that FIFA have brought in a 5 second restart rule for throw ins to speed up the pace of the game whilst also implementing two separate three minute water breaks in each match so adverts can be mainlined into people’s eyeballs.
FIFA's World Cup 'hydration breaks' are a money-grabbing disgrace: Gianni Infantino is selling football's soul to broadcasters - and fans are paying the price, writes RIATH AL-SAMARRAI https://t.co/9J6MmXngMh
@YouAreMyArsenal@SimonSaysHypno I’m not sure WC is that much about “being at a level”
There have been 8-0 Germany vs Saudi and 7-1 against Brazil.
All these players are professionals
Haiti have a manager who has never been to the country because it’s too dangerous. They can’t play at home for the same reason. Some of what their players have endured is deeply upsetting. Being at the World Cup is a miracle.
With @danigilopez
https://t.co/lrl6Osck79