A photographer is outlined against the 2006 FIFA World Cup logo projected on a screen. English football fans watching World Cup matches on their office computer screens could cost their employers billions of pounds, according to a report released on Monday. The BBC has said its policy of making matches available live on the Internet "will allow people to do their job and keep up with the very latest action", but analysts at Brabners Chaffe Street are not so sure about the "doing their job" part of that. Their study reckons that if half of all British workers spend just one hour a day watching footie online, the British economy could find itself four billion pounds out of pocket. That is without factoring in the number of days lost through workers calling in sick when they are hungover -- though 80 percent of managers have said, in another survey, that they are not going to tolerate such behaviour this year. On the other hand, some businesses stand to make a tidy profit from English football mania -- not least pubs. Nearly one in four English people have said they plan to watch the games pint in hand. According to a study also published on Monday, fans in England -- not including the ones who are actually travelling to Germany for the tournament -- are likely to spend an average of 60 pounds each every time England play. Twenty-six of those pounds are set to go on gambling, but that still leaves 34, which break down as 13 on food and drink, five on transportation, and 12 on boozy celebration or sorrows-drowning, depending on the result.   (Agencies)

本周一公布的一份調查報告顯示，英國的足球迷們若使用公司電腦在線觀看世界杯賽，公司將會損失幾十億英鎊。 英國廣播公司說，網上直播比賽“可以讓球迷們在工作的同時，隨時掌握比賽最新戰況”，可Brabners Chaffe Street的分析家們卻認為"工作"這一頭很難保證。 據分析家估算，即使全英國一半的職員每天只花一個小時在線觀看比賽，英國將遭受40億英鎊的經濟損失。 這還不包括員工在此期間因醉酒而請的病假--雖然另有調查表明，80％的管理人員表示，今年世界杯期間，他們不會容忍這樣的事情發生。 從另一方面看，一些行業準備從英國的“足球熱”中大賺一筆，尤其是一些酒館。 近四分之一的英國人說，他們將一邊喝酒，一邊看比賽。 本周一公布的另一調查表明，若逢英國隊比賽，英國球迷（不包括去德國看比賽的球迷）的人均消費將可能達到60英鎊。 調查顯示，其中26英鎊將用于賭博，剩下34英鎊中餐飲費13英鎊，交通費5英鎊，還有12英鎊用來喝酒慶祝或借酒消愁，那就要視比賽結果而定了。 (英語點津姍姍編輯)