Source : ABC NEWS
With the countdown on until Australia’s World Cup match against Paraguay tomorrow, football fans have flocked to book annual leave, strategise long lunches and perhaps concoct some mysterious, but extremely well-timed illnesses.
The 12pm (AEST) kick-off, on a workday no less, may be a rare event for fans used to more nocturnal hours. But it’s unlikely to stop live-watch sites and pubs around the country attracting huge numbers, as the Socceroos take on Paraguay in the final match of the group stage.
Socceroos forward Nestory Irankunda scored Australia’s opening goal of the World Cup. (AP: Gregory Bull)
On Reddit, fans have spoken of taking their laptops to the pub and blocking off “focus time”, sneakily watching the match on their phone under the desk, or “working” from home.
One commenter noted it was “time to break out the great Australian tradition of chucking a sickie”.
“Lay the ground work now. Throw in some rogue cough. Mention that someone in your household is sick; extra points if you say they have COVID.”
“Easier to ask for forgiveness than to ask for permission,” noted another.
Fans are again expected to flock to live watch sites around the country, but this time in daylight hours. (ABC News: Digby Werthmuller)
Others don’t have to pretend to be interested in working, with many offices embracing the match by throwing an office watch party, catering included.
In Brisbane, football fan Doug Raisin is closing his photo lab for the afternoon to watch the game.
His family of five, including his three kids, all play soccer on weekends, so there’s been no shortage of enthusiasm for the World Cup.
“Normally, we’re up at 2 or 4 in the morning watching the games,” he says.
Doug Raisin and his family are all geared up to cheer on the Socceroos against Paraguay. (Supplied)
“I feel like this is the first time we’ve actually had a game or a World Cup where the games are played in our daylight or normal kind of waking hours.”
He says it “just seems un-Australian not to” close his business tomorrow afternoon.
Raisin was considering watching it at a local pub, but after a few very loyal employees insisted they needed to be close to their workstations for some tasks, they set up a TV in the lunch room instead.
Greg Ziegler, a member at Fawkner Soccer Club in Melbourne, will be among a small army of club volunteers helping out with a sausage sizzle in Federation Square.
He says there’s plenty of pre-match excitement among the club’s more than 300 junior and senior players.
Federation Square is likely to be at capacity again tomorrow. (ABC News: Andi Yu)
Ziegler predicts there will be no shortage of two-hour lunches in Melbourne’s CBD.
“And look, it’s fair enough, I think as a country we’re batting above our weight in all these sports,” he says.
“Sport’s a bit of a religion in Australia, isn’t it?”
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Even the players themselves have advocated for Australians to down tools and watch the big match.
In a Socceroos video posted on TikTok, defender Jason Geria called on employers and school teachers to let their charges enjoy the contest.
“Let them watch it,” he said with a grin, encouraging teachers to wheel a TV into the classroom or allow students to watch on their iPads.
“Bosses, you can let your employees watch. We love the support that we’ve seen so far at the fans’ live sites around Australia, and the clips of people in their living rooms or with their friends and family … at the pubs, wherever.”
He said the timing did not get much better than 12pm on a Friday. “So, if they can let their employees or let their students watch, I think that’d be amazing.”
Sarah McCann-Bartlett, chief executive at the Australian HR Institute, predicts that despite the excitement of the match, there won’t be a sudden onslaught of sickies.
“The timing, particularly for those that live on the eastern seaboard, is around lunchtime anyway,” she says.
She believes many employers will be flexible, and happy for employees to make up the time elsewhere, especially if they’re up-front about it.
“We know that there are a lot of organisations that are putting on lunches and using it as an engagement activity for their employees, and at the very least will have the televisions on in their offices so that it’s running in the background.”
Sarah McCann-Bartlett believes long lunches rather than sickies will be the order of the day. (Supplied)
For those in customer-facing roles, McCann-Bartlett suspects there’ll be a few favours being granted among workmates to cover or switch shifts.
“In today’s workplace, there’s a whole lot of other options for employees to get to watch the match, to get to — fingers crossed — celebrate, but you don’t have to take a day of sick leave to do it.”
At The Sporting Globe in Melbourne’s Richmond, it’s already a sellout, with 350 people booked in to watch the game.
“It’s probably a little bit higher than what we expected initially, but I imagine a few people have taken the day off,” says venue manager Caleb Hounihan.
Pubs around Australia, including The Sporting Globe in Richmond, are set to be filled to the brim. (Supplied: The Sporting Globe)
Could — cough cough — a few of those pub-goers be planning to chuck a sickie?
“It would surprise me if they didn’t. It’s definitely on the agenda for a lot of people, I think, and why wouldn’t ya?” says Hounihan.
He predicts there’ll also be a few high-level “meetings” happening, perhaps of the networking variety.
“I think we’ll definitely see a few laptops in the venue tomorrow, people making out like they’re working, instead of watching the game.
“People are good at thinking outside the box, that’s for sure.”
And if you’re tempted to stay at the pub, or a live watch site, beyond that long lunch break?
McCann-Bartlett advises against shirking your employment responsibilities entirely, unless you’ve taken an annual leave day, of course.
“That’s where I think you have to say, ‘Look, my employer has cut me some slack here, I’m really grateful for that, I owe them, and I’m going to go back to the workplace and finish up my day,'” she says.
