FIFA’s World Cup Halftime Show Puts American-Style Spectacle on the World Stage
FIFA is introducing a Super Bowl-style halftime show to the 2026 World Cup final, featuring major global music stars. The move aims to increase entertainment value and raise funds for youth education, though it has sparked debate among traditional soccer fans.
Why it matters
The integration of American-style commercial entertainment into global sports highlights the ongoing tension between tradition and the globalization of sports marketing.
During the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, the Coldplay frontman called Hugh Evans, the CEO of Global Citizen, for whom he curates the Global Citizen Festival, with something new to pitch. “Wouldn’t it be incredible,” Evans recalls Martin saying, “if we could do the first-ever halftime show for the World Cup?” Evans agreed, and connected with FIFA president Gianni Infantino at the organization’s headquarters in Switzerland to sell him on Martin’s plan. He didn’t need to.
Infantino had already had a similar idea—and was a Coldplay fan. “So he actually had already independently decided that he wanted to work with Coldplay and that he wanted to achieve this dream,” Evans says.
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