First up is the football World Cup, where England have been drawn against the United States (Saturday 12 June 2010 at 19.30), Algeria (Friday 18 June 2010 at 19.30) and Slovenia (Wednesday 23 June 2010 at 15.00). If they qualify for the second round, the England football team will play their second round match during the weekend of 26 and 27 June 2010.

While there will be less disruption than usual for many employers because England are playing most of their matches at the weekend, there will still be plenty of employers that require employers to be at work during these times. In addition, one of England's games kicks off at 15.00 on a Wednesday, when employers can expect many workers to want to clock off early.

Issues for employers to consider during the football World Cup include:

- time off work, including the possibility that there might be unauthorised absences or an unusually large number of employees might want the day of (or the day after) a match off;

- flexible working times, particularly at the end of the day given that some matches kick off in the afternoon;

- facilities for watching matches during work (for example big screens in communal areas), especially given how easy it is to watch matches on the internet;

- criminal conduct outside work, particularly employees caught engaging in football hooliganism;

- discrimination issues, for example assumptions that only men would be interested in watching football matches or giving preferential treatment to England fans over other nationalities, whose team may also be taking part.

Photo: IsakAronsson