The BBC avoided a repeat of the controversy from the start of the World Cup by making a change for Sunday's final

The BBC and presenter Gabby Logan managed to avoid further complaints from viewers by showing the entirety of the World Cup final’s half-time show. Logan led BBC One’s coverage of Sunday’s final between Spain and Argentina, with Joe Hart, Micah Richards and Wayne Rooney joining her as pundits.

In the process, the 53-year-old became the first female to present the men’s World Cup showpiece in the BBC’s history. The panel briefly analysed the uneventful first-half before the inaugural World Cup final half-time show began at the MetLife stadium.

While many had expected the A-list roster of performers to inject some excitement after a drab opening 45 minutes, audiences witnessed a bizarre mash-up featuring Madonna, Brazilian icons Ronaldo and Ronaldinho, BTS, the Muppets, Ted Lasso, Justin Bieber and Shakira.

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Luckily for Logan, the entire performance was shown on the BBC without any interruption, which allowed her to avoid the same criticism and fan backlash she received at the start of the tournament. The World Cup opening ceremonies had not been shown in full on live television by the BBC, having instead made it available on iPlayer.

Canadian singer Michael Buble was one of the stars who performed at his country’s opening ceremony last month, as all three host nations celebrated their homegrown talent ahead of the first match they staged at the tournament. Buble performed before the opening fixture - a 1-1 draw between Canada and Bosnia and Herzegovina.

However, the BBC interrupted the performance on their own broadcast, opting to dedicate a chunk of airtime to the football itself. Buble fans were left furious that Logan and the pundits spoke over his performance.

The backlash saw fans of the Canadian call her out directly, which she did not respond to. However, Buble himself soon waded into the row, making things even more uncomfortable for Logan.

"The next day, Michael Buble himself, on his personal account to 4.4million people, puts up one of these posts and it's us in the studio talking over him," she explained. "He just left it there, so I replied to him, sent him a DM and said 'really sorry, we did actually put your whole thing up on iPlayer... and I hope you didn't treat it as a mark of disrespect'.

"Then he sent back a really long, considered message to me, telling me that it's a shame in this age that people just look for the humour in something first. It was a fair point and I came back and said mea culpa, I never broadcast for clicks and likes but maybe I did intentionally lead my pundits somewhere where I felt there would be a bit of humour.

"Then he came back and he said 'Look Gabby, I appreciate you coming back to me, the BBC have always been so supportive of me, please come to a gig - I'm going to be in the UK soon'. So I went from feeling like I was going to have the wrath of Bubles on my back for the rest of my life to feeling like we might be mates."

Sunday’s half-time spectacle certainly split opinion, with Rooney delivering a brutally frank assessment by telling Logan live on air: "I like a lot of them artists but I thought it was cr*p."

FIFA had reportedly promised the half-time break would only be two minutes longer than the usual 15 minutes, but it in fact lasted a whopping 27 minutes and 24 seconds - just two minutes less than the amount of time the ball was in play during the first half.