Michael Gietzen, group chief executive officer at Identity, said: “FIFA is right to extend half-time, and the people complaining are missing the point.
“Football has its own rhythm and its own rules, and of course that matters. But a World Cup final isn’t most of the time. It happens once every four years, in front of the biggest audience any single sporting event can pull. Treating it like a normal weekend fixture is the mistake, not the half-time show.
“A good half-time show isn’t a distraction from the football. It’s part of the reason people remember exactly where they were when they watched it. A few extra minutes to get that right isn’t a compromise, it’s FIFA recognising that the final is a cultural event as much as a sporting one.
“Purists may call that a dilution. I’d call it FIFA catching up to what a decent proportion of audiences have wanted for years. A final like this comes round once every four years. Play it safe and you waste the moment.”
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