It's Coming Home to Work: Managing the World Cup Without Losing the Plot
The World Cup arrives every four years and just like a well-drilled defensive line, the best workplaces have a plan before the whistle blows. Glorious, chaotic and potentially explosive.
Here’s how to handle it sensibly, legally and without earning yourself a red card as a manager who got it wrong!
Why this matters more than you think
Let’s be direct: ignoring the World Cup does not make it go away. Roughly half your workforce will be emotionally invested in at least one team, a quarter will have strong opinions about refereeing decisions and at least one person in every office believes they could have made that penalty. The question is not whether the tournament will affect your workplace it’s whether you manage that effect or let it manage you.
Done well, a World Cup can be a genuine team-building moment: shared excitement, friendly banter and an excuse for a sweepstake that makes everyone feel slightly more connected. Done badly, it becomes a flashpoint for absenteeism, resentment, tired team members, tension between nationalities and a formal grievance you really didn’t want to write.
EDELWEISS HR’S VIEW
Proactive communication is your best tool. Set expectations early, be consistent in how you apply rules and err on the side of generosity where you can. Employees remember how they were treated during moments that mattered to them.
EDELWEISS HR VIEW
Proactive communication is your best tool. Set expectations early, be consistent in how you apply rules and err on the side of generosity where you can. Employees remember how they were treated during moments that mattered to them.
Managing time off: the big match problem
The knock-out stages are when things get spicy. A 10pm kick-off on a Tuesday night means half the team arrives on Wednesday looking like they haven’t been to bed. A 3pm semi-final is genuinely painful if you don’t have a plan.
ANNUAL LEAVE
Encourage staff to book leave early. Operate a fair first-come, first-served policy — but do publish the fixture list in advance so no one is caught out.
FLEXIBLE START TIMES
After a late-night game, consider allowing a later start — an hour’s flexibility costs little and buys enormous goodwill. Just apply it consistently.
WORKING FROM HOME
A WFH day after a big match can reduce presenteeism. A tired, distracted employee in the office is less productive than a tired employee on a quiet video call.
TIME OFF IN LIEU
If you need full attendance, offer TOIL. This avoids the quiet resentment of forced attendance during a national moment.
WATCH OUT FOR THIS
Sudden spikes in sick leave around major fixtures are a known phenomenon. If this happens, handle it through your normal absence management process, not a pointed all-staff email about ‘coincidences.’ That approach alienates everyone, including the people who genuinely were unwell.
“The most effective managers during a major tournament are not the ones who ignore it.
They’re the ones who create a simple, fair framework and then get out of the way.”
UK employment law: what you actually need to know
The good news is that UK employment law doesn’t require you to do anything special for the World Cup. The less good news is that your existing legal obligations don’t take a tournament break either.
No automatic right to time off. Employees have no legal entitlement to leave to watch matches. However, all annual leave requests must be handled fairly and without discrimination you can’t approve one person’s request and refuse an identical one without a legitimate reason.
Equal treatment is non-negotiable. If you allow England supporters to watch a semi-final in the office, you must make equivalent accommodations for colleagues supporting other nations. Failing to do so could constitute discrimination on grounds of race or national origin.
Working time rules still apply. If you allow shift patterns or hours to flex, ensure you remain compliant with the Working Time Regulations 1998 — particularly the 48-hour weekly limit and daily rest requirements.
Conduct standards don’t change. Alcohol at lunchtime, offensive banter about nationalities and discriminatory ‘jokes’ are misconduct regardless of tournament fever. Your dignity at work and disciplinary policies apply in full.
Document your decisions. If you’re making temporary policy adjustments, write them down. Verbal agreements get misremembered and create disputes. A short, clear policy communicated by email is all you need.
LEGAL NOTE
If you operate a licensed premises or have PRS/PPL licensing requirements, showing live broadcasts, even on a laptop in a meeting room, may require additional permissions. Check the legality before setting up a viewing area.
The office sweepstake: doing it properly
The sweepstake is a workplace institution and when done right it is a genuinely good and fun thing; a low-stakes shared experience that gives even the least football-interested colleague a team to half-heartedly cheer for. It is also subject to UK gambling law, which sounds alarming but is easily managed.
THE LEGAL POSITION (SIMPLIFIED)
A workplace sweepstake is permitted under the Gambling Act 2005 as a ‘private, non-commercial’ lottery, provided: participation is free or entry costs are nominal; it is open only to people who work together; and all proceeds go to prizes (no profit for the organiser). Keep it simple, keep it inclusive, keep the stakes low — typically £2–£5 per entry.
Make participation entirely optional and never pressure anyone to join, not everyone is comfortable with gambling in any form.
Assign teams randomly (a spreadsheet and a randomise function will do). This avoids any perception of favouritism.
Post the draw results publicly so everyone can see who has which team.
Handle the money transparently. Collect it digitally if possible, keep a record and pay out promptly. Nothing sours a sweepstake like a winner chasing their winnings months later.
National pride and workplace tensions
This is the section that matters most and gets talked about least. Modern workplaces are wonderfully diverse which means that during a World Cup, you may have colleagues supporting England, Nigeria, Argentina, Japan, Morocco and twelve other nations, all under the same roof. That is a brilliant thing. It can also, if handled carelessly, become a source of genuine hurt.
The key insight: national pride is not rivalry and rivalry is not hostility. Good-natured banter about a match result is fine. Persistent mockery of someone’s nationality, culture, or country’s footballing history is not and neither is side-lining or excluding colleagues because their team isn’t ‘our team.’
SET THE TONE EARLY
A brief manager message at the start of the tournament sets expectations. Celebrate the diversity of teams your colleagues support as it is genuinely interesting.
INCLUDE EVERYONE
If you put a screen up for England games, offer the same for other nations’ matches when scheduling allows. Visibility matters.
ACT QUICKLY ON ISSUES
If banter crosses a line, deal with it promptly and privately. Letting it fester is how minor incidents become formal complaints.
DON’T ASSUME ALLEGIANCE
Never assume which team a colleague supports based on their background. Ask them, it’s more respectful and often more interesting.
EDELWEISS HR’S VIEW ON FLAGS AND DECORATIONS
Office decorations showing national flags are generally fine and can add to the atmosphere. However, if you’re displaying flags, display all of them — or set a neutral ‘World Cup’ theme rather than effectively decorating for one nation’s journey. This is especially important if your organisation has a strong diversity and inclusion commitment.
Late nights, live streams and the morning after
Depending on the host nation, some matches will kick off at times that make the following morning a genuine challenge. The pragmatic approach is to acknowledge this reality rather than pretend it doesn’t exist.
A 10pm quarter-final means a significant portion of your workforce will have been awake until midnight or later. The 9am meeting you scheduled before the fixture list was published is going to be painful for everyone. Consider moving it. Not as a policy, just as a practical, human decision.
A PRACTICAL FRAMEWORK FOR LATE-NIGHT FIXTURES
For games finishing after 11pm on a weekday: allow optional 10am starts the following day where operational needs permit; encourage managers to keep that morning light on mandatory attendance; and brief line managers in advance so they can make sensible local decisions without escalating every case to EDELWEISS HR.
On the subject of live streams at work: your IT and data policies apply. If staff are watching matches on work devices, that is a conversation to have in advance; not a disciplinary matter discovered after the fact. A simple, temporary policy permitting personal streaming on personal devices during lunch or agreed breaks is easy to draft and removes ambiguity entirely.
Your World Cup workplace checklist
Before the tournament begins, work through these:
□ Publish the fixture schedule to all staff and encourage early leave requests
□ Issue a brief, positive communication setting out your approach; flexible arrangements where possible, fair and consistent treatment throughout
□ Brief line managers on the policy so decisions are consistent across teams
□ Organise the sweepstake early, before the group stage, while every team still has hope
□ Remind staff of your dignity at work and conduct policies, without making it feel like a telling-off
□ Check your TV licensing position if you plan any communal viewing
□ Identify which fixtures are likely to cause the most operational impact and plan staffing accordingly
□ Celebrate the whole tournament — not just the nation where most of your workforce was born
□ Brace yourself for the England team’s penalty knockout!
A final word. The best thing a manager can do during a World Cup is to be pragmatic about it. Your staff are human beings with national loyalties, sleep deficits and an entirely disproportionate emotional investment in a sport played by other people. Acknowledge that, accommodate it where you reasonably can, hold the line on conduct where you must and enjoy the tournament. It only comes around every four years.
Please contact Edelweiss HR, we are here to see fairplay and limit the red cards! hr@edelweisshr.co.uk