‘Start work at 11’ – but will other bosses be as flexible over England’s 1am match?

As World Cup fever builds ahead of Monday’s middle-of-the-night match, businesses are scrambling to work out how they handle the day after.

Employees who are hoping to stay up late for England’s clash with Mexico – which kicks off at 01:00 BST – will want to know what their options are.

While some industries such as manufacturing and retail will be less able to provide flexibility, others are offering bleary-eyed fans later starts so they can catch up on sleep.

Joshua Elash, who runs London-based firm MT Finance Group, is allowing his staff to start work at 11:00.

“It wasn’t a dilemma at all. This was as close to a no-brainer as a business can get,” he says.

“Everybody at this company works in the office. We don’t actually have a work from home policy here.

“We’re a finance company, so we think it’s important and critical that everybody is in and communicating and working together in real time.

“So yeah, under normal circumstances, all 125 of them would be here in the office at 08:45 or 09:00 Monday morning. But that certainly won’t be the case this Monday.”

Joshua says he and other senior managers will be staying up to watch the game, and says if he fancies a lie-in it’s only fair to extend that to the rest of the team.

“It’s good for morale,” he says, adding it will be worth it even if Monday isn’t a particularly productive day overall.

“Some things are more important than, you know, a day’s revenue,” he adds.