The 2026 World Cup will go down in history as soccer’s ultimate petri dish. With 48 teams spread across three time zones, FIFA treated the tournament as a grand laboratory for new rules, highly commercialized entertainment, and groundbreaking broadcast technology.
Part of it was an absolute win that vastly improved the viewing experience. Other elements were bloated, plastic, and fundamentally divorced from what makes soccer the beautiful game.
With the World Cup in the rearview mirror and the domestic season looming, Mirror Football’s chief writer John Cross has scoured the remains of the summer experiment and highlighted four things we should immediately throw in the bin and three things the Premier League needs to steal immediately.
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things that must be thrown away
hydration break
What started as a genuine medical necessity in extreme climates has officially morphed into an undesirable tactical timeout. Mr. Cross is perfectly clear. In a sport that relies on continued momentum, there is no such thing as a corporate-friendly pause.
“Throw that away,” Cross said on the final episode of the Make Football Great Again podcast. “They just aren’t for me.” Stopping the clock may make sense in the scorching Texas summer heat, but trying to translate it to a domestic game is a ridiculous idea. Can you imagine trying to enforce forced hydration during a match on a windy, freezing Monday night in January in the north of England? Let’s get rid of it.
Hydration breaks were unpopular with fans, but many teams used them to their advantage throughout the tournament (Image: James Gill – Danehouse/Getty Images)
half time show
Football is a sport rooted in subculture and raw passion on the terraces, not highly choreographed corporate pop music. An attempt to inject American-style stadium entertainment into the intermission of the world’s biggest game was a total failure for traditionalists.
Cross was not at all impressed by the plastic sight. “Don’t do it. I’m kind of so-so. I don’t mind it, but basically, personally, I’m going to stop doing it…Those weirdly choreographed shows didn’t do much for me, so I’m just going to stop doing it in general.”
Soccer fans spend halftime analyzing tactics, complaining about referees and lining up for pie, not watching Hollywood productions.
World Cup halftime show was a disaster (Image: FIFA via Getty Images)
48 teams
The math just wasn’t working. By expanding the tournament to 48 teams, the opening game felt less like a global showcase of the elite and more like an endless, low-stakes warm-up where virtually everyone qualified for the finals.
“I hate the group stage and the lack of danger,” Cross explains. “It’s embarrassing, it’s ridiculous, and that’s not what we want. If we don’t go back to about 32, the whole pig could be 64.”
If the tournament is to expand, it needs a format that creates instant drama, rather than an endless safety net that dilutes the opening weeks.
“Snicko” ball sensor
Technology is supposed to eliminate controversy, but microchip sensors embedded in tournament game balls only muddy the waters, and fans and experts are not entirely convinced by the digital display.
“Well, I didn’t like it,” Kross admitted, recalling the highly controversial decision to cancel the Portugal-Croatia goal. “Because basically, I can’t say it helped…no chance. No chance at all.”
When technology begins to contradict the obvious evidence of the human eye, it creates confusion rather than clarity. Step into column Z.
‘Snicko’ technology failed to impress, but it worked! (Image: BBC)
What the Premier League must adopt
Powerful graphics
Television coverage took a big step forward this summer with data overlays that actually added context to the unfolding matches, tracking shifts in dominance in real time.
“I like[the vibrant graphics]. I really like them,” Cross enthuses. “Well, love it. This was a really interesting statistic and it was fascinating.”
In a league as frenetic and unpredictable as the Premier League, providing viewers at home with a visual representation of which teams are building sustained pressure would be an incredible addition to the standard pundit.
Powerful graphics are a big hit with viewers
wrong identity rules
VAR protocols remain a source of frustration for England, but the World Cup proved that safety net rules can be effectively implemented to prevent catastrophic refereeing blunders without delaying matches.
“Oh, I love it,” Cross says. “And, yeah, I think there were some parts that I liked quite a bit in terms of VAR. You know, I think I was positive about the different parts that they did. So, overall, I think, yes, we’ll keep it.”
The Premier League is keen to streamline its video review process and adopting this common sense approach will save referees a huge headache.
Following recent changes to FIFA rules, VAR intervened for the first time in history due to mistaken identity (Image: (Photo by Jamie Squire/Getty Images))
Prohibition of covering the mouth
The modern practice of players covering their lips with their hands whenever they speak to officials or opponents has long driven fans crazy. The tournament’s attempt to crack down on this dishonest behavior was a breath of fresh air.
“We want to follow the rules that say don’t do it, but we have to do it across the board,” Cross said, arguing that domestic football needs to strictly enforce the rules to break the habit. “Look, we had some scares early on, but basically, they learn quickly. We all know why it was brought in. It was brought in for the very best and most important reason…The players will learn quickly.”
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