Will this World Cup change the way we watch football? | The Football Boardroom

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1:04Henry:Welcome to the Football Boardroom. Henry, your feet are back on the ground. You've been running around and I believe you're back in Kansas from Boston from the England-Khana game. I confess not the greatest viewing experience, but you have been busy on the latest off-field controversy to overshadow this incredible 2026 World Cup. What have you been up to? CP, greetings from Kansas City, from the Midwest. But it seems, certainly having been at the game the other night, that it's more the Wild West when it comes to the hydration breaks. It's such a talking point out here, talking to England fans, talking to some of the Ghanaian fans, and talking to friends back home.

1:55what it means to the individual flow of the game, what it means to the future of the game. Are we going from the game of two halves, which you and I grew up loving and still love, to a game of four quarters, as it's actually routinely referred to on American TV on Fox over here. Just a quick timeline of events the other night. It was, we went towards this first break, and there was frustration. and there were boos and it was quite interesting. Some of the volume of the music got turned up. It's quite interesting the reaction on some of the American television stations. Someone described it as pantomime viewing by England and Ghanaian fans.

2:39I promise you, I was there and it was probably 20 of the 65 ,000 were showing their disapproval. A lot of this was on the back of the Club World Cup and the extreme temperatures there and the initial point from FIFA was that it was for the welfare of the players. Players are looking a little bit bemused by this. Thomas Tuchel has said he doesn't like the game being impeded, the momentum being killed. And so I was just sort of tweeting about it at halftime the other night and just said, listen, this is an absolute joke. This doesn't, this kills the game for the three minutes that they go to the sideline for and then probably for about a minute afterwards because they're just sort of feeling their way back into the game.

3:24So it doesn't really help anyone. The welfare of the players, which absolutely has to be paramount, isn't really an issue in climates when you've got 19 degrees or an air-conditioned climates. So I was just tweeting about this and I got a reaction back from FIFA saying, well, listen, we have to have it consistent. It has to be for every game. Otherwise, that affects the sporting balance of the game. But look, the French had a game the other night where they pulled it in the second half. We've had games, we had it with England, where two players went down injured just before the midpoint in the half.

3:57They then had two minutes of attention, 30 seconds of replaying, and then they went off for the three minutes. And then eventually last, the other night, Infantino put out a statement, the FIFA president, saying they are doing this for the good of the sport. And he underlined this point, and this is right where you come in because you know the numbers. and you know the financial imperatives in the game, is that Infantino said we're not doing it for any financial benefit to ourselves, to FIFA. But is there, CP, and this is where I need your forensic mind and sleuthing in on this, what are the benefits for the television companies?

4:40Henry:Well, he's very skillful, isn't he, at the politics of this stuff because at a strictly technical level during this World Cup, The windfall benefits of, in effect, adding nearly six minutes of additional advertising slots to every game, those financial benefits are, for now, flowing to the broadcast companies who are choosing to sell advertising during those breaks. and to be clear, not every commercial broadcaster who happens to have the rights to this World Cup around the world are choosing to do so. In fact, it's interesting, most notably, our commercial broadcaster ITV is not currently running adverts during their coverage.

5:30Sorry, interrupting. Is that because they knew there would be a backlash or they just don't like the idea anyway?

5:37Henry:Actually, neither. The primary reason, Henry, is that the UK commercial TV marketplace is actually highly regulated by something called Ofcom. And the number of minutes that our commercial broadcasters are allowed to give over to advertising is limited. So in this case, it would be of zero financial benefit to ITV to sell advertising in those slots because to be within their mandated advertising time limits, they would simply have to do less advertising pre-match and post-match. So I think it's one of these cases where ITV have rather smartly made a virtue out of necessity. They have turned it actually into what all good marketing should be about, which is giving your audience, your fans, your customer what they want, or in this case, what they don't want.

6:30Henry:And it's very, very clear that traditional UK football fans absolutely would sympathise with your observations that having a break in the middle of halves is fundamentally transforming the game, the sport, the emotions, the momentum, let alone allowing, you know, mid-half coaching. Anyone could see it is having a dramatic effect on the sport we love. I think ITV know that and so have not been, have not been, have in fact been allowing their pundits to comment quite openly on how obviously ridiculous these breaks are in being presented as one thing when in fact they're not a hydration break. They're nothing to do with weather conditions.

7:18Henry:They're nothing to do with giving players a chance to cool down. As you rightly say, so many of these games are being played in air conditioned environments. they are a totally commercial decision mandated by FIFA and and that is very very clear FIFA aren't getting the money this time round but we'll talk about why they're doing it but look just explain this Ofcom to me because you've been in the room when these conversations have taken place we've seen it in in rugby where they've almost sort of split the screen and some of the American channels also for some of the games they're splitting the screen so you've got the focus on the players having the chat with Pochettino or Tuchel on the touchline in this three-minute ad break.

7:59And then the other half of the screen, you've got David Beckham selling honey or cars or whatever. Would that get around Ofcom?

8:07Henry:No, I don't think that would get around Ofcom right now for this tournament for ITV. They did experiment with that, I think, in the rugby recently. And by the way, consumer reaction in the UK was pretty negative. So I think we should focus on what is in it for FIFA, actually, given that, as I have explained, the direct beneficiaries right now, think of it almost as windfall revenue opportunities for the broadcasters who happen to have the rights. And the most obvious beneficiary are the biggest rights holders for this tournament in the United States, which is Fox Sports. And frankly, Henry, what fascinates me here is the politics behind the scenes.

8:54Henry:Because for those who don't know, Fox actually got the rights to televise the World Cup in America many years ago. In fact, in 2015, they already held the rights to the 2018 and 2022 World Cups, Russia and Qatar. and those rights, by the way, were awarded long before, I think, in 2010. But in 2015, when FIFA finally, finally, after five years of intense criticism from everybody in Europe about having a World Cup in the middle of the desert, they decided to change the timing of the Qatar World Cup from being a summer World Cup to a winter World Cup. Fox went absolutely crazy at the thought that these World Cup rights for Qatar would be running directly against their prime domestic sports content, being the NFL and the NBA, in autumn and winter in the United States.

10:01Henry:And FIFA were in grave danger of probably the biggest lawsuit in the history of sports media and their peace offering to Fox Sports in 2015 when they broke the news that we're sorry, guys, the Football World Cup is going directly against your sports coverage was to say, how about we give you the rights to the 2026 World Cup as well at the same price as 2022? and that's how Fox find themselves as the host broadcaster. And that turned out to be, Henry, the deal of the century in media terms because, frankly, at that time, firstly, we didn't know that the World Cup was going to be in the United States of America.

10:45Henry:Secondly, we didn't know it was going to have 48 teams. So a massive expansion in the value of those rights for Fox. Can you imagine, then, their good fortune that having lucked out in the first place with one of the lowest value media rights deals in history to actually be showing this World Cup in America right now. Last summer in 2025, during the Club World Cup, FIFA announced, actually, we're going to bring in these hydration breaks for the 2026 World Cup tournament. And that's straight to Fox's bottom line. Absolutely remarkable. Two things strike me on this. First, the Trump-Fox connection, also with Infantino.

11:28We've seen Trump and Infantino seem best buddies. And also the fact that when the World Cup was in the United States in 1994, there wasn't really that huge, intense interest. In fact, the start of it was the TV coverage were far more focused on OJ Simpson in his Bronco truck going down the interstate in LA. I mean, that dominated coverage. But clearly FIFA maybe learnt the lesson from that. And MLS obviously came in a season or so after that and have sort of taken off gradually. But do you think this is all, as well as the Trump-Fox-Infantino connection, there is this huge desire for FIFA to make soccer the number one sport here.

12:21Totally ambitious, not going to happen, but they really want to sort of invade. And the United States is the final frontier in terms of actually sort of spreading the message of soccer. And that is why they were sympathetic towards Fox and the television companies in terms of this deal.

12:39Henry:Well, I think the way I look at it, this is the, for FIFA, this is the fill your boots World Cup. You know, anything goes in, anything goes generally in media and commerce and sports in America, definitely in Donald Trump's America. So, you know, think of FIFA as being not unlike, you know, a club in our domestic game. They want to max out on ticket revenue. knew, well, you know, the reaction to ticket prices outside America for this World Cup has been absolutely serious or nonstop. American fans, they're used to paying crazily high prices for tickets. And yes, whilst there's some noise, they've got away with that.

13:24Henry:And the stadia looked pretty filled to me. and the fact that FIFA are able to now benefit from the secondary sale of tickets in that marketplace and basically take huge commissions out of the resale of tickets, the resale of tickets at massive markups to their face value, you just can't get away with that in the rest of the world, in the football-loving world where football is the primary sport. I see this as an opportunity for FIFA to really, really push the boundaries on what is commercially possible when there are no real guardrails. Maxing out on ticketing revenue, maxing out on the value to TV companies by throwing in these additional advertising minutes in the form of hydration breaks.

14:12Henry:And right now, my guess is that FIFA are taking the long view. Let's prove the concept. Let's show to worldwide broadcasters just how valuable those extra six minutes can be. And you can bet your bottom dollar, Henry, that when we get round to the sale of rights to the 2030 and the 2034 World Cups, broadcasters will be expected to pay for those extra minutes. And I would bet my last dollar that hydration breaks as a FIFA World Cup feature are here to stay. But I find it fascinating to see, particularly with the proliferation of American owners in the Premier League, and you will have seen this firsthand at Aston Villa and Chelsea and Liverpool, whether we're going to see more of the commercialisation which we're seeing in the media over here in the Premier League.

15:07Henry:Well, it's an interesting point that, you know, the whole subject of the introduction of more US-style coverage to our sports is a bit of an old chestnut. You know, I've been in the game a long time and, you know, Sky have basically been the lead broadcaster of our game now for the whole of the Premier League era, well over 30 years. So that's, you know, with a new deal done every three years normally, maybe that's nine or 10 new deals. And every one of those so-called renewal moments to the broadcast rights, You can rest assured, Henry, and I was in the room for many of those. Sky and the other broadcasters competing to televise the Premier League in Britain would have been saying, look, we need and want more US-style features to our coverage.

16:03Henry:You know, from in-game interviews of coaches and players talking to substitutes when they come off the park, getting cameras in the dressing room, which has been happening in US sports for 50 years. getting cameras on the field itself when goals are being celebrated. They're just three or four examples of enhancements to the broadcaster's access to the talent, to the stadium, to try and make the viewing experience better. And my observation would be that we're still miles behind the US in terms of that coverage. And I think it's interesting unpicking why that might be the case. I mean, I've covered a bit of MLS down the years, and I remember talking to Gerrard in the Galaxy dressing room at LA.

16:52I think they were playing NYC and Frank Lampard, and there was obviously a big England golden generation focus on it. And just talking to Gerrard, and I said, what do you make of it, just having this media invasion of the dressing room? And I don't think he was completely happy with it. He understood the sort of the commercial reasons behind it and why the clubs were into it. But it just didn't sit easily with me, partly because there were certain things you could see in the dressing room people were doing. Like there's a big pile of vitamins, completely innocent. The other side of the room from Gerard, which people were helping themselves to, and I could just see some of the headlines that might arise from that.

17:34So I could understand why there would be resistance to that. Also on a completely purist level, I quite like the mystique of the dressing room being for the players, for the coaches. Obviously, that's been opened in the post-Ferguson era, 2013. iPhones came in. All the pictures you see from Manchester United's dressing rooms and other dressing rooms wouldn't have happened when Ferguson was in charge. What I do find interesting is this halftime talk. They're allowed 60 seconds and they have to put up, each team has to put up someone who is on the bench. And England have put up Anthony Barry, Thomas Tuchel's number two, who gets asked a fairly generic question by whoever the host broadcaster is, ITV or BBC, ITV for the Croatia game, BBC for the game the other night in Boston.

18:22And it's a fairly generic question of, you know, how did you feel that half went? Are there anything particular that you're trying to change? And Anthony Barry actually was incredibly forthright and got a lot of praise because of the honesty from him. We all saw it.

18:37Henry:My phone lit up with mates saying, who the hell's this bloke, for a start? But he's Tuchel's number two. I take your point, Anthony Barrow, he's not a household name. But he's still Tuchel's number two. He still came out with some fairly strong things at halftime. I mean, obviously, he might have been a bit more guarded in Boston. But he still talked about patience, and there were elements that he could pick up. But the interviewer is only allowed to ask one question at the start, so they can't bounce back off him. If he says, oh, I'm not happy with the Garnetians playing this low block, they can't come back in on that.

19:10But can you see more and more of that coming into the Premier League?

19:15Henry:Look, let's talk about Anthony Barry. You're not a fan of him, are you? No, listen, I don't know the fella, but all I know is that most fans don't know who he is. And to a British football fan watching that game, it absolutely was gold. It was innovative. It caught the eye. As I say, my phone lit up with all my mates saying, what the F is this? It's honest, which we're not used to. Telling us, you know, that it's not going very well. And it was just pretty raw, pretty direct, pretty unplugged. And it's absolutely a perfect example of what we're discussing here, an innovation or an enhancement to the TV audience experience that companies like Sky have been arguing for for decades.

20:11Henry:But when push comes to shove, they don't get very many of these through the Premier League. You know, we're one year into the latest deal with Sky. OK, this is a company that are paying£1.3 billion a year for the right to televise our game in Britain. OK, this is a company that people talk about, you know, the big stakeholders in our national sport. you know, people who bought football clubs for a billion, two billion quid. Sky have spent over 30 billion pounds just for the right to, leaving aside studios and staff and production, just for the right to televise our game. So you would think they've got by far the loudest voice in the room.

20:57Henry:And on many things, they do have the loudest voice. But when you talk about these little innovations like, you know, we'd like to be able to, you know, interview a sub when he comes off the park. By the time that gets put into what the Premier League call their Section K rules, okay, they're so watered down. It's like, okay, you can do a substitute, but only before the 85th minute and only one time a season. Oh, and by the way, if we're losing, you can't do it. So H, I want you and our audience to understand that to me, it's absolutely, it's both fascinating for a traditionalist like me, heartening that even though somebody with that much stake in the game, that much power, our lead broadcaster, when clubs get asked, oh, can you give us your feedback on these additional American style features that Sky would like to introduce into our coverage?

21:53Henry:by the time 20 clubs have said oh i don't like that i don't like that they do get very heavily watered down and and i would say in toto that the traditional views of the game still hold sway and a lot of people will be pleased about that this is fascinating because you see what clubs then do to their shirts they turn them into almost a trash them in some cases and just cover them in billboards and they look like quick fit fitters sort of covered in in logos so they prepare to do that which you and i would consider anti-traditional but obviously it's money spinning but they don't allow i find it extraordinary that that's that sky don't push for it more because you know he who pays the the ferryman you know should be allowed to uh to interview the ferryman's mum at half time they they would say and so would i the the best run commercial organizations in the world understand the importance of the 80 20 rule focusing on what really makes a difference and what really makes a difference for sky is having the big matches at 4 30 on a sunday um in fact scheduling and kickoff times makes a huge difference for a broadcaster many people like me believe if you had to say one thing that has created the Premier League behemoth globally as a broadcasting phenomenon, it was the years ahead of their rivals in Spain and France and Italy, the Premier League and Sky figured out, let's have different kickoff times for TV audiences from Tokyo in the east to Seattle in the west.

23:33Henry:So Sky get that. They exert their stakeholder power and influence on what makes the biggest difference but on smaller things that we've been talking about in this world cup broadcaster features that enhance the viewing experience they find it pretty hard going and and and the key is the constituency is different so when when when when somebody asks a commercial question at the premier league can we play around with how our sponsors look on our shirts for example then it's businessman answering the question and saying if it makes us money the answers yes but when you start talking about access to dressing rooms access to the tunnel areas going up to a player who's just walked off the pitch and is sitting on the bench in the 84th minute guess whose call that is in a football club answer whose it always has been the manager the coach and their natural reaction is no thank you but how many managers are there nowadays there are more coaches who are presumably more malleable i think the direction of travel is most definitely to more and more of these u.s style features being incorporated and the normalization of things that would previously have been considered absolutely taboo like as you say a camera being anywhere near the inside of a dressing room can you see that happening in the near future it's happening and it has happened i'm simply saying compared to the usa we're miles behind and and you would say because you've been raving to me about the uh coverage of u.s sports out there at every level you would say not only are we miles behind but but the proposition for our tv audience is therefore less compelling less exciting less entertaining than it could be i'm saying to you as somebody who sat on the other side of that debate when we the sky and the premier league it's a very democratic process when innovations are considered in this area clubs get a chance to feed back and in my experience whatever you call the guy running the team the coach the head coach the manager from fergie to to um thomas frank through to whoever is today sitting there in that room, the natural reaction of somebody running a football team in British football is, no thanks, that's my sanctuary.

26:07Henry:I want my privacy. And that's why I think Sky find it pretty hard going in this area. Well, the sanctuary of those clubs and those dressing rooms had people in the past like you and David Gill at Manchester United who were football fans and would resist too much of invasions. But do you think as the proverbial Americanization of the Premier League, you are going to get maybe more American CEOs parachuted in and you are going to get more of this loosening of the dressing room boundaries and more of television's invasion? Firstly, let's join this all together. We've talked about these unbelievably high-profile hydration breaks And that's driven by the ability to sell more advertising minutes.

26:53Henry:You know, let's run that through your question. Is there a scenario in 1, 5, 10, 20 years, okay, when all 20 Premier League clubs are owned by American organizations with hugely developed sports, media and entertainment activities? the most sophisticated owners in the world of these types of properties, who are absolutely convinced that the value of that extra six minutes of advertising is going to translate through into much bigger TV rights and therefore much bigger revenue for those club owners. And therefore, guys, we should introduce quarters into our great game. It's not impossible, is it?

27:40Henry:It's just a continuum of more and more commercialization. What I'm saying is at the micro level, some of these purer US features of sports coverage around dressing room access, around player and coach access, they have been really hard going. and it's not for the lack of trying by Sky and other international broadcasters who look at what happens in America, look at the audience feedback, look how popular those features are and say, guys, you're missing a trick not having that in British football. And yet it's slow peddling. So my feeling is, look, I think the biggest example, example i think to date of u.s media enhancement of the coverage of our national game have been these reality shows the and and it's interesting isn't it nothing all or nothing yes i think that's the amazon version netflix versions across a whole range of sport netflix coverage drive to survive of f1 largely credited by media and sports executives with transforming the popularity of that sport.

28:53Henry:Now, isn't it interesting in 2026, I think the first all or nothing on our Premier League game, club, club all or nothing, was 2017 Man City. Isn't it interesting? You know, I can promise you one thing. The first phone call that Netflix or Amazon made in 2015, 16, 17 was to Manchester United. And for nine years, that answer has been no thank you. Why? Was it a Glazers thing they didn't want cameras around them because they're slightly strange characters look I'd love to say that my hero you know Alec Ferguson would have said no but by 2017 when the first show came out he'd already retired but look I'm gonna say it his his influence still loomed still does in many respects loom very large over a decent swathe of the coaching and managerial community in our game.

29:48Henry:And the notion that the dressing room is a sanctuary for football and suits and commercial people and God forbid broadcasters stay out, you know, that would have still had plenty of resonance in 2017 at a great club like Man United. But to use two of our favourite phrases, money and power, I think the money equation at Man United in 2026 is a bit different to 2017 okay um they need money um you know they've had a really really tough run um um they're trying to be ladies there's been cost savings you know people have left that football club who never would have left under the previous regimes ever um the general messaging out of the football club has been we need to maximize our revenues and minimize our spending i.e.