The good Robert Smith was right when he was very critical a few days ago with the halftime show of the World Cup final, defined as “panem et circenses” stuff. The leader of the Cure, at the mere thought of a show like this, had let himself go for a long time AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGHmore or less the same expression, and the same emphasis, with which we viewers reacted during one of the most chaotic and least sensible shows for this sport.
The detractors of this idea were right: football is not made for this kind of spectacle. It's not American football, or basketball, with franchises that can move around state and city, forgetting their past and leaving room for pure entertainment. Football is something else. Football is faith. The World Cup, then, even more so. It is the story of people who put their own history into a sport. Let's think about what happened between England and Argentina in the semi-final, where the issue of the Falklands/Malvinas was at the center of the discussion, even among the players themselves after the result was obtained. It's just a sport, some will say, but football is not and never will be just a simple sport: it's history, identity, politics.
Precisely on this last point was Robert Smith, disgusted (to say the least) by the friendship between Gianni Infantino, President of FIFA, and Donald Trump. Not only did Infantino's reign change the way of perceiving the World Cup (from the winter ones in Qatar to the latter divided between several nations), but the rules of the game: in fact, in this World Cup – for the first time in history – a disqualification for a red card was revoked from a United States player after pressure (far from subtle) from the American Presidency. And so it also went for the halftime show, the first in a World Cup final.
Madonna, BTS, Justin Bieber, & Shakira Perform the 1st Ever World Cup Final Halftime Show pic.twitter.com/LabQNQpDYg
— The ANF Club ⚽️ (@adjorNfriends) July 19, 2026
But how did the show go? After days of controversy over the possible duration (there was talk of half an hour, FIFA had declared 11 minutes, in the end it was really 11, but without considering the pre and post, thus significantly lengthening the interval), the show arrived bringing with it a fair amount of chaos. The artists followed one another at a crazy pace, with sudden genre changes and choices that were absurd to say the least.
It begins with Madonna in the stadium tunnel, in a segment that seems pre-recorded and in which the pop star performs a version of Music who flirts with Disco Inferno And Danceteria as he reaches the playing field in a car driven by Ronaldo (the Phenomenon) and Ronaldinho, two heroes of Brazilian football history, for the only iconographic moment of the show (the two, however, are used as stickers). Total performance time: 2 minutes and 3 seconds.
Not even time to get used to Madonna's dancefloor rhythms, before on stage we find an orchestra conducted by Gustavo Dudamel and the Muppets (yes, them, the puppets) grappling with the football anthem par excellence: Seven Nation Army of the White Stripes. Sudden change and BTS arrive on stage with Dynamite. For them, 1 minute and 46 minutes of live. The principles of k-pop are interrupted by a very quick intervention by the actors Jason Sudeikis and Brendan Hunt, present here in the guise of their characters from the series Ted Lassoto be “replaced” by the two coaches with Justin Bieber, who performs a voice and guitar version of Everything Hallelujah. For him almost 2 full minutes of performance, a luxury.
The clock runs and Shakira and Burna Boy arrive on stage, who had already performed in one of the opening ceremonies of the tournament, to Come on, come onone of the official songs of the 2026 World Cup. Two full minutes also for the queen of World Cup songs.
Do you think it's all over? Absolutely not. In fact, the great show created by Chris Martin could not end without Chris Martin himself and his Coldplay who, re-proposing the tropos from white saviorarrive on stage with 50 primary school children for an unreleased song designed specifically for the final, We Dance.
An ADHD halftime show that in the feel-good attempt to bring everyone and everything together – from Madonna to Justin Bieber, from the Muppets to BTS – ends up displeasing practically everyone. The comment by Wayne Rooney, star of British football, guest of the BBC: «I love these artists, but this show was shit». Flash performances cannot excite fans, just as radical genre changes can be enjoyed on rides after a few too many beers. Nothing we have seen can change our minds: the halftime show, especially one so plural and chaotic, has nothing to do with football.
It's a good job I've got my spiritual socks on or that halftime entertainment could have tipped me over the edge
— Liam Gallagher (@liamgallagher) July 19, 2026
But all this is best summarized by Liam Gallagher, someone who was the musical protagonist of this World Cup given that Wonderwall by Oasis was the soundtrack to the English team's run which earned them a third place finish. “It's a good thing I put on my spiritual socks, otherwise this halftime show would have made me completely lose my patience”, commented the English singer in a surreal but at the same time clear way who, after complimenting Justin Bieber (“Justin rocks”), found the perfect definition of the show: “It's like a bad trip”. There's nothing else to add, thanks Liam, we've lived another nightmare made in the USA.
