The Football Fever
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Britain's victory over Argentina on June 12 in the World Cup refreshed memories of Britain's war with Argentina over the Falkland Islands. It also kindled the fond hope that Britain will reach the semi-finals. Indeed everyone is happy about it, except perhaps the employers and the bosses who are reportedly secretly hoping that Britain does not reach the semi-finals. Crazy as this may appear, this is because the scheduled time for the semi-finals would be lunch time in Britain and the football mania has affected Britain so seriously that absenteeism during and after lunch time would cost £ 1 billion in lost productivity. This is what had happened during the match with Argentina.
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A rush hour being split is the dream of transport planners and operators, but is seldom realised. Well, it happened on June 12, when Britain played with Nigeria. The match started at 7.30 a.m., hence many people jam-packed the highways, streets, and the Tube by 6.30 a.m., bleary eyed, as they gyrated to their favourite pubs which had put up large size TVs across the country. Then the roads and the Tube emptied as the match started, to get packed again after 9.20 a.m. when the final whistle blew. This was the lot, which made its way to the offices and factories. Since Britain had won the match, there were also a sizeable lot of fans that decided to give themselves a holiday and celebrate the victory.
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The last weekend saw Britain play Sweden. Collection of related statistics has been steadily going on. An estimated extra sale of five million gallons of beer was reported. One famous departmental store, TESCO, has reported an extra sale of one million cans on this occasion. Sale of champagne went up by half a million bottles. And inevitably, sale of hangover remedies was up 400 per cent.
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Britain's World Cup match
with Denmark scheduled for June 15 is estimated to produce one million litres
of sweat from 17 million fans who will watch it. A journalist who claims to
have done some quick pharmaceutical research after the famous match with Greece
indicated this. After this match, 450 viewers were interviewed for voting as to
which was the most tense, sweatiest moment of the match. A very large majority
voted for the moment when, after Greece scored one goal over Britain, a free
kick opportunity came Britain's way. And David Beckham scored the equaliser
goal, relieving Britons of anxiety. One more proof that genius is one per cent
inspiration and ninety per cent perspiration!
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And finally, there are some in Britain who are holding their breath for a different reason. In 1966, and in 1990, Britain did very well in the World Cup and each time, somehow, economic growth and sales slumped in the months that followed. Newspapers have already started publishing photographs of a worried Mr. Gordon Brown, the Finance Secretary.
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© smsingru June, 2002