Virgil van Dijk has been watching the World Cup the same way everyone else has.
In the days before the Netherlands faced Japan on Sunday, the Liverpool captain was in camp following the tournament as closely as his schedule allowed, as a genuine fan of a sport he has played at its highest level for more than a decade. And like everyone else watching, he noticed what happens every time a referee whistles for a hydration break.
“I think hydration breaks are really interesting,” said van Dijk, “because I was obviously watching almost all the games up until today. Every time, going to commercial is a bit — not really that I like it. I think for the neutral watching on TV, it’s also not great. So, if it’s really hot, obviously it would be good to put them in, but I think you have to look at it every game, separately, in my opinion.”
Virgil van Dijk is NOT a fan of the mandatory drinks breaks at this World Cup… especially for fans watching at home ❌ pic.twitter.com/8c1GbWf8gU
— Football on TNT Sports (@footballontnt) June 15, 2026
Van Dijk is now the most prominent player to publicly weigh in on a debate that has consumed the tournament’s opening week. Fox opted to air full-screen commercials during the breaks, part of what amounts to as many as 832 new commercial slots across the tournament’s 104 matches. The inventory didn’t exist at any prior World Cup until FIFA announced in March that broadcasters could monetize the mandatory three-minute stoppages, provided they observed a 20-second buffer before cutting away and returned to coverage at least 30 seconds before play resumed. Fox failed the second part in the tournament opener between Mexico and South Africa, returning from a hydration break after play had already resumed on the field. Telemundo pledged before the tournament to stay on the match feed during breaks and has been promoting that distinction throughout the first week.
The breaks were presented as a player welfare measure against the summer heat across the United States, Canada, and Mexico, and in legitimately extreme conditions, that argument has merit. But van Dijk was not watching as a coach or an analyst parsing tactics. He was watching as a fan of the sport, like everyone else, and what kept his attention was not the football.