The FIFA World Cup is arguably one of the simplest brands around. Sure, every four years we get a new logo, a new ball design and a new host nation. But ultimately, unlike the offside rule, the core proposition is beautifully uncomplicated. World teams play football and try to win a big trophy.
Naturally, this year FIFA looked at this immaculate piece of brand equity and thought, What's missing is a pop concert!
Yes, in what looked like a brazen attempt to turn the World Cup into the Super Bowl, FIFA gave this year's final a halftime show; an 11-minute circus featuring appearances from Madonna, Justin Bieber, BTS and, perhaps most fittingly, the Muppets. The result was perhaps the most spectacular (and expensive) identity crisis I've ever witnessed.
Now, I'm not curmudgeonly enough to suggest that football and music shouldn't mix. Nor that a little halftime entertainment is an inherently bad thing. But when the world's biggest sport tournament suddenly tries to borrow someone else's personality, the results are going to be jarring.
The Super Bowl halftime show works because it's authentic to the brand. Spectacle and excess are in its DNA. The event is as important as, if not more important than, the game. It doesn't pretend not to be a corporate behemoth. That's why the best Super Bowl ads are such a big deal.
But the World Cup isn't supposed to feel like a circus. Yes, there's ceremony, but it isn't the same kind of overly stimulating spectacle. The tension is in the simplicity; billions of people focussed solely on the football, without the distraction of Shakira and her truthful hips.
Judging by the reaction online, In wasn't the only one who hated the whole thing. "#pleasejustf*ckoff", The Cure's Robert Smith posted in response to the show, while countless viewers took to X to decry the spectacle.
Dear FIFA,We want our beautiful game back.Yours sincerely,EVERYONE. pic.twitter.com/WA4lCOr8mkJuly 19, 2026
Football fans around the world watching the World Cup Final "half time" show: pic.twitter.com/8rcVOC57qOJuly 19, 2026
And there's context here that makes the Super Bowl-esque halftime show even more uncomfortable. The controversy surrounding FIFA's decision to overturn a red card at the behest of Donald Trump was already doing serious reputational damage to the US-hosted tournament.
FIFA president Gianni Infantino argued that the halftime show will help modernise the World Cup. If that means turning it into a Super Bowl-style celeb-fest, then I'm not sure the beautiful game has a beautiful future.
