Starting this year, CONMEBOL decided to implement rehydration breaks in both the Copa Libertadores and the Copa Sudamericana. This measure, in line with what was seen in the Club World Cup 2025 and what will also be seen in the 2026 World Cup, generated strong criticism in the soccer field for being a new way of wasting net playing time
.
In this context, one of those who spoke out on the matter was Diego Latorre. The former soccer player and current ESPN commentator harshly questioned the inclusion of these interruptions, considering them detrimental to the natural rhythm
of the game.
"Please, I want there to be no more rehydration breaks,” Latorre launched categorically in the F90 program, marking his position from the beginning of the discussion. His approach was supported by his teammate Óscar Ruggeri, who provided a view from the logic of the soccer player on the field. “I'm losing a game and I'm squeezing my rival, and they stop my game, I'm going to drink water, when I come back I have to start again,” explained El Cabezón, showing how these pauses can cut off key
moments of pressure or dominance.
Later, the commentator deepened his analysis and pointed directly against the regulatory contradiction that, according to him, these measures generate: "There are issues that are absurd, contrary to the nature of the game. You cannot sanction or intend to sanction with these regulatory changes a guy who takes 10 seconds to make a change and then stops the game for a minute, a minute and a
half.”
Finally, the commentator went further and criticized possible commercial interests behind these decisions. “You have to be consistent. You realize that there is a criterion, I don't know if commercial or an eagerness to sell advertising. The audience is after the game. The game comes first of all, that the television business, that everything,” he concluded
.
Previously, Latorre had already expressed his repudiation of the measure as soon as the group stages of the Copa Libertadores and the Copa Sudamericana began. “These parates are absurd. The opposite of the nature of soccer, which is a dynamic sport. They want it to look like hockey, American football, give it a commercial character,” he said at the time. “They want to bring a sport as particular and as unique as soccer to resemble an American sport. And it's insane. But hey, you have to put up with it,”
he closed.
