Post Malone is not the headline act here, but he is the clue to the scale of the broadcast push: ITV and plan to carry Fifa’s full World Cup final half-time show on Sunday from New York New Jersey Stadium, even though the interval may run 25 to 30 minutes. That is well beyond the 15-minute limit written into the game’s laws.
Gianni Infantino has already called the show a “groundbreaking spectacle” that will “celebrate football, music and our shared values, ensuring a legacy that transcends the final whistle”. The half-time performance itself is projected to last about 11 minutes, which leaves the rest of the interval to pitch staging and the reset around it.
25 to 30 minutes on Sunday
25 to 30 minutes is the figure ITV and are working with for the World Cup final break, and that is the real issue for viewers of both broadcasters. A standard half-time is supposed to be 15 minutes, so the planned interval is roughly 10 to 15 minutes longer than the law allows unless the referee agrees otherwise.
15 minutes is the ceiling set by the laws of the game overseen by Ifab, and the wording matters: players are entitled to an interval, not a free extension. Once a half-time show moves from decoration to a major live broadcast item, the match schedule becomes a rules question as much as a production one.
Chris Martin’s 11-minute show
11 minutes is the expected length of the show curated by Chris Martin, with Madonna, Justin Bieber, Shakira and BTS among the performers. That compact runtime is why the overall break can still stretch far beyond the performance itself; the broadcast has to absorb the stage build, the clear-out and the football restart.
24 minutes was the total break Fifa managed at the Club World Cup final last year at the same venue, so this final is already set up to go longer. Fifa is also staging a closing ceremony 90 minutes before kick-off, with Robbie Williams and Jennifer Hudson on the bill, which shows how aggressively it has expanded the matchday presentation around the final.
Ifab rules and Fifa’s risk
“players are entitled to an interval at half‑time, not exceeding 15 minutes, and it may be altered only with the referee’s permission” is the relevant rule, and it puts Fifa in a delicate position if the break runs as planned. The broadcast decision is straightforward; the regulatory side is not, because the match can only stretch so far before it bumps into the law of the game.
Fifa has already pushed pre-match entertainment throughout this World Cup, including shows before Mexico v South Africa in the Mexico City Stadium, before Canada v Bosnia and Herzegovina in Toronto and before the USA’s first game against Paraguay. That makes Sunday less like a one-off stunt and more like the final test of how far the tournament’s entertainment model can go without breaking the match timetable.
For viewers of ITV and, the practical answer is simple: expect the full show, and expect the restart to depend on how long the stage setup actually takes on the pitch. Post Malone may be the search term attached to the wider entertainment push, but the real story is that a 15-minute break is being asked to carry a 25 to 30 minute event.
