By Yasmeen Badawy
When it comes to football, you can’t really keep the fans away. Especially, in the Middle East where football is not taken lightly. According to a new survey by GulfTalent, an online recruitment portal in the Middle East, employers across the region are set to witness a major dip in productivity, due to the 2018 football world cup. Apparently, 92% of employees will be too busy watching the World Cup work.
Seeing as four Arab countries, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Tunisia and Morocco have qualified for the World Cup for the first time, Middle Eastern fans are getting too excited. Football fans in the region are also looking forward to seeing Liverpool-star and Egypt national team striker Mohamed Salah perform. Every fan is grateful that Mohamed Salah recovered from the injury that he sustained at the Champions League final match against Real Madrid. He will participate in the country’s first match against Uruguay which is a relief to all Egyptians.
Since most of the matches will be played during Middle East working hours of 2:00 PM to 1:00 AM (U.A.E. time), fans plan to watch it through live streaming on smartphones. Forbes reported that of the 8,000 employees surveyed across the region, 28% or more than one in four, admitted planning to watch some of the games during working hours.
Almost two-thirds of the professionals said they would sit up to watch the match till late, cutting their sleeping hours. As a result, around 17% would go to work late, while 8% would take the next day off as annual leave, and 1% would call in sick. Moreover, the world cup is also making quite a buzz in the region on social media with 98% of the Twitter users excited about the FIFA World Cup, according to a recent Twitter survey.
