Hydration breaks

Hydration breaks are part of the new delay timeline events. These are currently being rolled out to select competitions. Initial coverage includes the FIFA Club World Cup and FIFA World Cup 2026.

FIFA mandates cooling and hydration breaks in matches played under high heat and humidity conditions. The Sportmonks API tracks these breaks as dedicated timeline events, giving you the data you need to display them accurately in match centres and live trackers.

How breaks appear in the timeline

Each break produces a pair of event types:

Type	type_id	Description
DELAY_START	132791	Recorded when the break begins
DELAY_END	132792	Recorded when play resumes

Both types are returned via the timeline include on any fixture or livescores endpoint.

Retrieving break events

GET https://api.sportmonks.com/v3/football/fixtures/{fixture_id}
?include=timeline&api_token=YOUR_TOKEN

To filter the timeline to delay events only, use the timelineTypes filter with both type IDs:

GET https://api.sportmonks.com/v3/football/fixtures/{fixture_id}
?include=timeline&filters=timelineTypes:132791,132792&api_token=YOUR_TOKEN

Two records per break

Both DELAY_START and DELAY_END produce one timeline record per participant. For a standard two-team fixture this means you will receive two DELAY_START records and two DELAY_END records per break - one for each team's participant_id. The minute, addition, and info values are identical across both records for the same break moment.

When rendering breaks in a match timeline, group by addition (e.g. "1st Delay Start") to display a single entry per break rather than one per team.

The info field

The info field on a DELAY_START record describes the reason for the break where known. For hydration breaks this will be "Hydration break". DELAY_END records always return null for info.

Example response

The four records below represent a complete hydration break: a start at minute 26, followed by a resumption at minute 29.

DELAY_START - home team (participant_id: 18)

{
  "id": 156997833,
  "fixture_id": 19339023,
  "period_id": 6134045,
  "participant_id": 18,
  "type_id": 132791,
  "section": "timeline",
  "player_id": null,
  "related_player_id": null,
  "player_name": null,
  "related_player_name": null,
  "result": null,
  "info": "Hydration break",
  "addition": "2nd Delay Start",
  "minute": 26,
  "extra_minute": null,
  "injured": null,
  "on_bench": false,
  "coach_id": null,
  "sub_type_id": null,
  "detailed_period_id": 6134045,
  "rescinded": null,
  "sort_order": 5
}

DELAY_START - away team (participant_id: 591)

{
  "id": 156997834,
  "fixture_id": 19339023,
  "period_id": 6134045,
  "participant_id": 591,
  "type_id": 132791,
  "section": "timeline",
  "player_id": null,
  "related_player_id": null,
  "player_name": null,
  "related_player_name": null,
  "result": null,
  "info": "Hydration break",
  "addition": "2nd Delay Start",
  "minute": 26,
  "extra_minute": null,
  "injured": null,
  "on_bench": false,
  "coach_id": null,
  "sub_type_id": null,
  "detailed_period_id": 6134045,
  "rescinded": null,
  "sort_order": 6
}

DELAY_END - home team (participant_id: 18)

{
  "id": 156997835,
  "fixture_id": 19339023,
  "period_id": 6134045,
  "participant_id": 18,
  "type_id": 132792,
  "section": "timeline",
  "player_id": null,
  "related_player_id": null,
  "player_name": null,
  "related_player_name": null,
  "result": null,
  "info": null,
  "addition": "2nd Delay End",
  "minute": 29,
  "extra_minute": null,
  "injured": null,
  "on_bench": false,
  "coach_id": null,
  "sub_type_id": null,
  "detailed_period_id": 6134045,
  "rescinded": null,
  "sort_order": 7
}

DELAY_END - away team (participant_id: 591)

{
  "id": 156997836,
  "fixture_id": 19339023,
  "period_id": 6134045,
  "participant_id": 591,
  "type_id": 132792,
  "section": "timeline",
  "player_id": null,
  "related_player_id": null,
  "player_name": null,
  "related_player_name": null,
  "result": null,
  "info": null,
  "addition": "2nd Delay End",
  "minute": 29,
  "extra_minute": null,
  "injured": null,
  "on_bench": false,
  "coach_id": null,
  "sub_type_id": null,
  "detailed_period_id": 6134045,
  "rescinded": null,
  "sort_order": 8
}

Injury-related delays

The behaviour described below is still in development and is subject to change.

When a delay is caused by an injury, the DELAY_START record may include details about the affected player. In these cases the following fields can be populated on the DELAY_START record:

• player_id - the ID of the injured player

• player_name - the name of the injured player

• injured - true

These fields are only present when injury information is available. Always handle null before accessing them.