World Cup Fans and Bosses Navigate Late Kickoffs and Work Schedules

The 2026 FIFA World Cup is about to kick off across North America, and it's already creating a peculiar problem for millions of British workers: how to watch football when the matches start at 9 p.m., 10 p.m., or even 2 a.m., and still show up functional the next morning.

England's group games are scheduled for 2100 and 2200 BST. Scotland's are even later—2300 and 0200. For fans who want to attend, the math is brutal. Cameron Rae, a Scotland supporter who works in a garage, has already booked the Monday after Scotland's Haiti match off work so he can spend the evening at a Tartan Army fan zone in his local town hall, complete with a bar and DJ running until 4 a.m. "I work in a garage and we're open as normal, so I probably wouldn't get away with flexible working," he says. For him, the only solution was to sacrifice a day of work entirely.

Others are trying to thread the needle differently. Krys Kujawa, a business analyst and fellow Scotland fan, thinks he can survive without taking time off—mostly. The Haiti match falls early Sunday morning, leaving all of Sunday to recover. Morocco kicks off late Friday, so he can stay awake and sleep Saturday. But Brazil, he says, is "coffee-your-way-through-work territory." He would have preferred the Scottish national Bank Holiday—granted on June 15 to celebrate Scotland's first World Cup appearance since 1998—to fall after the Brazil match instead. As it stands, the holiday offers some relief for NHS Scotland staff and Scottish government employees, though local councils and private businesses have no obligation to participate.

The scale of the disruption is not lost on employers. BrightHR, which tracks absences across more than a million UK workers, predicts at least 1.5 million employees will call in sick during the tournament, generating over 2.3 million additional sickness absences. The workforce management company UKG estimates the World Cup could cost UK employers around £681 million in lost productivity. Unions and employment experts are already warning businesses to brace for what they're calling "World Cup sickies."

Some forward-thinking companies are trying a different approach. Pull the Pin, a digital agency based in Birmingham, has expanded its flexible working policy specifically to accommodate the tournament. Founder Sam Hufton, himself a keen football fan, has told staff that if they want to watch a game and start work later, they can—as long as they're transparent about it. "Everyone sets out a weekly plan of roughly when they're starting and finishing each day, so the whole team knows where everyone is," he explains. The company used a similar approach during Euro 2024, giving staff the morning off after England's final against Spain. "We all know how that turned out," Hufton says, referring to England's loss, "but it meant everyone could enjoy it and start back up at lunchtime."

For Hufton, the policy is about more than just managing absences. It's about morale. "Not everyone's a football fan, but plenty will be, especially families who want to watch together. Whoever does take it up, I just want them to really enjoy it." He'll be watching the matches himself with his two sons or with friends, and he's aware that his own wedding on July 11 could coincide with an England quarter-final—a scheduling conflict he finds amusing rather than troubling.

Sharna Beveridge, Pull the Pin's social media manager, isn't a huge football enthusiast, but the office atmosphere is infectious. "The office has completely lost the plot... in the best way possible," she says. She plans to watch England games with friends and start work a bit later on those mornings. "The extra couple of hours in bed will definitely sway my decision to go out rather than stay in."

HR professionals are offering guidance to both sides. David D'Souza, a director at the CIPD, the professional body for human resources, says employers should be clear about their expectations and encourage employees to book time off if games or their aftermath could affect work performance. John Palmer, a senior advisor at Acas, the conciliation service, urges football fans to communicate their intentions to their employers as soon as possible. "Be fair with your employer, your employer will be fair with you," Palmer says. The underlying principle is simple: transparency and mutual respect, negotiated well in advance, can turn a potential crisis into a manageable arrangement.