Fans slam FIFA's cooling breaks. Why the U.S. World Cup team doctor disagrees

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Set us as preferred While it may not be remembered as FIFA’s most controversial decision of the 2026 World Cup, the institution of mandatory cooling breaks in all matches has been met with boos and derision, with critics saying the pauses disrupt the game’s flow and offer little benefit in air-conditioned environments.“They’re in a dome here! Temperature-controlled, climate-controlled — why are we having a break?” fumed one England fan to a radio reporter outside the England-Croatia match in Arlington, Texas, where field temperatures inside AT&T Stadium approached a comfortable 70 degrees Fahrenheit despite an outdoor heat and humidity index near 105 degrees.But for Dr.Bert Mandelbaum, chief medical officer for U.S.

men’s soccer and vice chair of Cedars-Sinai Medical Center’s orthopedic surgery department, the breaks set an important precedent for prioritizing athlete health in extreme heat, even at the highest levels of competition.“I do think the cooling breaks are an important part of the game.I’m really excited and happy that we are employing those,” he said by phone Tuesday morning, hours after the U.S.

team’s 4-1 knockout loss to Belgium.“Difficult weather environments bring on dehydration and can create severe exhaustion, heat exhaustion, and those [conditions] have tremendous and dire consequences,” Mandelbaum said.“Talk radio could discuss it over and over again, but from our standpoint, the real messaging should be to our communities, our club players, that this is an important part of our game, and the cooling break is how we help manage it.”Warming climate conditions are forcing changes to human behavior all around the globe, including on the pitch.Extreme heat kills more people each year than all other forms of extreme weather combined.

Elite athletes are not immune to its eff...