Scotland is going to the World Cup. Genuinely. After 28 years of hurt, the national team will be on the pitch in North America next summer, and anyone pretending that won't affect workplace attendance — particularly for early morning or late-night kick-offs — is kidding themselves. Glasgow-based employment law firm Holmes Mackillop has issued a clear warning to Scottish employers: don't let World Cup fever turn into a tribunal claim.
The firm's caution is well-timed. FIFA World Cup 2026 runs from June to July, hosted across the United States, Canada, and Mexico, which means kick-off times will often fall outside standard working hours — but not always, and not conveniently. Some matches will land mid-morning UK time, which is where the awkward overlap between football and the working day begins. For SMEs running lean teams, a few unplanned absences at once isn't a minor inconvenience — it's an operational problem.
The legal risk, however, sits firmly with how employers respond. Under the Employment Rights Act 1996 and associated ACAS guidance on managing absence, employees retain the right to call in sick regardless of what's on telly the night before. Employers cannot legally discipline someone for sickness absence based on suspicion alone. Holmes Mackillop's guidance echoes ACAS's own advice: follow your existing absence management policy consistently, document everything, and avoid singling out individuals based on assumptions. If you treat World Cup absentees differently from, say, someone who calls in sick after a Bank Holiday weekend, you're creating an inconsistency that could come back to bite you at tribunal.
The smarter move — and the one that protects you legally while keeping staff onside — is to get ahead of it. The Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) has consistently found that flexible working arrangements and proactive communication reduce unplanned absences far more effectively than punitive policies. That means talking to your team now. Offering flexible start times or remote working on match days, creating a process for booking annual leave around fixtures, or even hosting a team watch-along for the big Scotland games are all legitimate management tools. They cost less than a tribunal, and they cost nothing in goodwill.
It's also worth noting that Scotland's participation adds a cultural dimension English-focused guidance often misses. This is a once-in-a-generation moment for Scottish football. Employers who treat it purely as a compliance headache risk a morale hit that outlasts the tournament. According to research published by the CIPD, employee trust in management is one of the strongest predictors of discretionary effort — the difference between someone who does the job and someone who goes the extra mile. A heavy-handed response to a Scotland match is a fast way to erode that trust in a small team where every person counts.
If genuine unauthorised absence does occur, follow your disciplinary policy — the same one you'd use any other time of year. Return-to-work interviews are your friend here: they deter casual sickies, give you documentation if escalation is needed, and are standard ACAS-recommended practice. What you must not do is assume, accuse, or act on a hunch without process. Employment law does not care that you saw someone's Instagram story from the pub.