FIFA Eases World Cup Water Bottle Restrictions for 2026

Fifa has rowed back on its controversial World Cup water bottle rules, easing restrictions after a fierce backlash from supporters, scientists and even the British prime minister.

In a fresh update for the 2026 tournament in North America, fans will now be allowed to bring one sealed, disposable 590ml plastic bottle of water into stadiums in the USA and Canada. It is a partial U-turn, not a full climbdown – but a significant shift in tone after days of criticism.

Only days ago, ticket holders had been told they could no longer bring in the empty, transparent, reusable bottles of up to one litre that had previously been permitted. That change, announced earlier in the week, triggered immediate anger, particularly given growing concerns over extreme heat and spectator welfare at a summer World Cup spread across vast distances.

Fan groups called the move heavy-handed. Scientific experts warned about the risks of dehydration in hot conditions. Then came a political hit from London.

Keir Starmer, the British prime minister, accused Fifa of putting profit before people, calling the policy “wrong” and saying it was “about making money”. Speaking to LBC, he pointed out the contradiction at the heart of the decision: fans barred from bringing in their own bottles, but free to buy water inside the ground at inflated prices.

“So you can’t bring plastic bottles in but you can buy a bottle of water when you get in the crowd?” he said. “And then it’ll be expensive. The tickets themselves cost a fortune, far too expensive in my view. So the ticket sales are too high. And this is the wrong policy.”

Under the revised stance, Fifa confirmed: “All fans will be permitted to bring in one, soft, plastic, 20 ounces (590ml), factory sealed disposable water bottle into any Fifa World Cup 2026 match in the USA and Canada.”

The governing body is still drawing a hard line on sturdier containers. World Cup 2026 chief operating officer Heimo Schirgi underlined that “hard-sided resealable water containers” remain banned, arguing they “could pose a safety and security risk.”

That justification echoes Fifa’s original defence earlier in the week, when it said the intention of the ban was to “prevent risk and injury to players and attendees”. Yet the comparison with recent tournaments has been unavoidable.

At last summer’s Club World Cup in the United States, fans were allowed to bring empty bottles into stadiums and fill them at water stations. Inside those grounds, water typically cost between £3 (€3.47) and £4.50 – hardly cheap, but at least supporters had the option of carrying their own containers.

This time, with a World Cup on the horizon and temperatures expected to be punishing in several host cities, every detail around hydration and stadium policy has taken on greater weight. Fifa’s partial reversal might cool some of the anger, but it leaves a lingering question as the countdown to 2026 continues: in the battle between safety, comfort and commercial gain, whose side will the world’s biggest tournament truly take?