Seven minutes were not visible
ZDF missed a large part of the World Cup opening ceremony
Updated June 12, 2026 – 8:11 a.mReading time: 2 minutes
The World Cup is one of the biggest events of the year. However, viewers on public broadcaster ZDF were not able to see the entire opening ceremony.
ZDF was late for the opening ceremony of the World Cup in Mexico City. Before the first game between co-hosts Mexico and South Africa (9 p.m. in the live ticker on t-online), the entire ceremony could only be watched on MagentaTV.
In the video | Shakira delights fans with hip swings
Player is loading
After ZDF had introduced the entire team of experts and concluded with ex-Freiburg coach Christian Streich, Jochen Breyer looked beaming into the camera shortly after half past seven and announced: “We are so happy that you are here and strengthening our team. It is a great honor that you are here. Our group is complete, we are now taking a short break and then Oli Schmidt will be in touch with the opening ceremony of this 23rd Football World Cup.”
The problem that was only noticed by viewers who were also watching MagentaTV: ZDF came back from the commercial break much too late. The station missed around seven minutes. This included performances by Danny Ocean and Lila Downs, among others.
Embed
Commentator Oli Schmidt reported back with the words: “Buen día from the Aztec Stadium, the cathedral of Mexican football. It’s a fairground, with Latin American rhythms, it’s exuberant, it’s wonderful and we see Belinda and Los Ángeles Azules.”
Although ZDF was clearly late for the opening ceremony, which lasted just over 20 minutes, the Mainz broadcaster did not miss the big finale with the Colombian singer Shakira, who once again contributed the official World Cup song and performed together with Burna Boy.