Where the World Cup Threatens Productivity the Most

Source: Statista

While football fans around the world are looking forward to the FIFA World Cup bringing them a month of excitement, employers are not quite as thrilled about their workers being distracted by the daily dose of World Cup drama.

64 matches crammed into roughly four weeks offer plenty of room for distraction, especially when several of these matches kick off during regular working hours. And while casual fans may be content with watching the odd game here and there, hardcore World Cup enthusiasts have the ambition to watch any match, regardless if the teams are Brazil and Germany or Tunisia and Panama.

How large the potential effect of the FIFA World Cup on productivity at the workplace is, depends largely on the time zone. While bosses in large parts of Asia and Australia can relax because of the games starting at night, Brazilian employees should probably cut their workers some slack over the next few weeks: because of the time difference more than 60 hours of World Cup action will be played during regular working hours in Rio.

World Cup Infographic

World Cup 2018: The Worst Opening Game Ever?

Source: Statista

Russia 2018 “The Tournament of Dreams”. So goes a slogan for the next FIFA World Cup. For anyone aside from Russia and Saudi Arabia fans though, the opening game of this year’s elite tournament looks more like a footballing nightmare. A far cry from the days where the current holders automatically kicked the tournament off, the two teams raising the curtain this time round will be the two currently lowest ranked in the whole competition.

When looking through the FIFA World Rankings back to USA ’94, you start to get some context for just how poor, at least on paper, this opening match-up is. When combining the world rankings of the participating teams at the time of the opening match, 2014 provided the most mouth-watering clash with Brazil (3) and Croatia (18) making a total ranking of 21. It’s also fair to say that this game lived up to expectations, with the hosts initially going behind early on before staging an impressive three goal comeback. In Russia though, the two teams combine to make a rank of 133 – the highest of the last seven tournaments. Of course, you don’t necessarily need big names and world beaters to make for a good game of football. We may well end up being pleasantly surprised come June 14.

World Cup Infographic