2026 World Cup final features first-ever halftime show, sparking traditionalist backlash

New Football World: Madonna, Justin Bieber & Co. on the Pitch | Source: FOX Sports via Getty Images/Frank Micelotta

The first halftime show of a World Cup final has outraged traditional football fans. Yet they themselves have long been customers in the entertainment business. Perhaps it's time to simply enjoy the spectacle.

Hard to say how many TV viewers pulled out their stopwatches at the halftime whistle. They knew what was coming: more than the usual 15 minutes — the longest football halftime show of all time. The frustration over this supposed breach of tradition was correspondingly high in advance.

The marketing machine has been running hotter and hotter in recent decades — players are now influencers, transfer rumors are told according to the rules of a Netflix series. All of this was barely accepted with gritted teeth, as long as the game itself remained as it always was. And that included the obligatory 15-minute break between halves, handled the same way from the district league to the World Cup final.

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The stopwatch had already been running for several minutes before the much-anticipated halftime act finally began. First, the pitch had to be hastily converted into a concert stage. That made ex-Freiburg coach and TV expert Christian Streich grumble on ZDF. Predictable, as he stands for a kind of authenticity that die-hard football fans sorely miss, with his unvarnished impulsiveness and his never-trained-away South Baden dialect.

But when pop icon Madonna is virtually driven into the stadium by Ronaldinho and Ronaldo in a metal-framed car, these complaints seem provincial. Madonna played her global hit "Music," and Brazilian football legends Ronaldinho and Ronaldo beamed from ear to ear. Admittedly, you've never seen them not laughing either. The opening of the halftime show was the most original of all the acts and likely appeased the first skeptics.

Ex-football star Ronaldo chauffeurs Madonna. Ronaldinho is also there | Source: zdf.de

What followed was a tightly choreographed medley of international stars:

• Gustavo Dudamel conducted "Seven Nation Army" together with the New York Orchestra and the Muppets
• BTS made a brief guest appearance
• Series character Ted Lasso sent singer Justin Bieber onto the field like a substitute player — arguably the most charming idea of the entire production

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Bieber set a pleasant counterpoint to the constant euphoria of the rest of the show with his ballad "Everything Hallelujah" and once again showed that he is a talented singer. Shakira, who performed after him, impressed with her incomparable body control. Together with Burna Boy, she ushered in the end of the show.

The stopwatch was already showing nearly twenty minutes. Because all the stage sets still had to be dismantled, it kept running. Before the restart, expert Christoph Kramer got to be the first reviewer: "That's part of the new football world," said the ex-pro graciously, well aware that the creeping commercialization of football first made his million-dollar salary as a player possible. Hardly anyone knows better than a former national player that professional football has long been a business sector.

The Colombian Shakira performed the official World Cup song "Dai Dai"