Warming up for Fifa Wordl Cup football fever

Punters and eateries get the ball rolling

Once every four years, an unusual pandemic afflicts the entire world. This scourge is commonly known as football fever. With the 2010 FIFA World Cup just five days away, productivity is expected to go down and relationships put on hold.

P. GOBIND* recalls how an ex-girlfriend – who was not a football fan – simply could not understand why he had to watch every match possible during the 1998 World Cup. He and a group of friends had gone to the extent of renting a small apartment for a month for the sole purpose of watching the tournament.

“As fresh graduates, some of us were renting rooms. So we decided to have a place for ourselves where we could watch matches at ungodly hours and make all the noise we wanted,” he says.

His mistake was keeping the place a secret from his girlfriend – he did not want to justify why he was spending money on an apartment when he already had a place to stay.

“What I didn’t know was that a close friend of hers stayed at the same apartment block, and she noticed me coming late at night and leaving early in the morning a few times,” he says.

Setting the mood: Choo has made significant upgrades to his establishment to target the niche market for the tournament.

 

Gobind says that his girlfriend initially thought he was being unfaithful, but eventually accepted his explanation. But that, he says, was the start of the decline in the relationship.

“She simply could not understand why football – and this tournament in particular – was so important to me. No matter what I said, she could not see the sense in it,” says Gobind who is now married to a football fan who fully understands his passion.

Working offside

Another avid football fan, James Chua*, cannot wait for the tournament to start, and is planning on watching as many matches as possible.

During the 2006 tournament, he skipped work a couple of times to recover from a night of football.
“I was sick because of football,” he says.

The process engineer says the World Cup is a welcome distraction, and his work would not be affected.
This time around, the games will kick-off earlier, and Chua says the challenge will now be beating traffic jams in the evening to catch the 7.30pm games.

However, some games start at 2.30am, and some will be tempted to take a day off. That’s usually the case during major football tournaments such as the World Cup or the European Championships.

Choo: ‘We have standing orders for table bookings even though the tournament has yet to start’.

M. Vivekanandan, the Malaysian Employers Federation (MEF) general manager of industrial relations, says that during the major football tournaments, there is usually a marked increase in absenteeism.

“There will usually be a spike in the number of people who take sick leave,” he says.

In a typical year, the employee loss days (ELD) from work per year averages about four days. But when the World Cup is on, it goes up to five to six days.

Vivekanandan believes that this year will not be as bad as games start earlier.
Vivekanandan believes that shift duties might see a sizeable increase in absenteeism and operations could be affected.

A manager of a semiconductor company believes his company won’t be affected because their employees are mostly female. The only concern will be the technicians, who are predominantly male.

“We will switch off the televisions in the cafeterias and take out the satellite decoder cards, so they will not be tempted to take long breaks,” he says.

“I have been here for the past two World Cups and there have not been many problems,” he adds.
According to a physiotherapist in a hospital, there is a big spike in the number of people who have ligament reconstruction surgeries.

“It’s good timing because you usually get two months off work,” she says.
One person whose life will not change much is ex-national player and TV pundit Serbegeth “Shebby” Singh – an essential part of his job, after all, is to watch football.

“It is kind of weird trying to think about lifestyle changes (over the tournament) as this is my lifestyle! All I can say is that the first three days are the most difficult as the body receives a shock – the transition from day to night and night to day takes some getting used to. And the week following the tournament is horrible as the body re-acclimatises!” he says.

Shebby informs that he has watched 100% of live World Cup telecasts since the 1974 tournament, and his family is aware of his passion.

“I have never needed any excuses (to watch football) – my family knows better than to make me choose,” he says.

Henry Tan: ‘We are already deploying more installers to meet the demand’

For this edition of the World Cup, Shebby will be showcasing his talents to the nation of India – but only in the studio, and not the football pitch.

“I will be working on ESPN Star Sports broadcast to India, and will be based in Singapore. I am really excited as there are only about one billion people,” he says.

The ball is round

For those not backing a specific team, a good way to spice things up would be a small wager. Punting on football matches happens all the time, but during the bigger tournaments, the betting frenzy increases exponentially.

“Everyone wants to get into the action,” says K. Marimuthu*, an avid punter.
Marimuthu is backing Brazil to win its sixth title and will not bet on any of their games because of superstition.
For the other games though, he will wager at least RM100 on each game. He has his bookie on speed dial and will place bets after studying the latest team news.

“It can only make the game more exciting and I will have more at stake when I’m watching it,” he says adding that he usually breaks even at the end.

Another regular punter, John Liew* says that he will be betting on specific matches only. During the last Euro tournament, he lost up to RM5,000 and he says that he has learnt his lesson and will set aside only RM2,000 this time.

“If I lose that amount, I will stop betting. I will be more careful and only choose a team I am sure will win,” he says.

Liew will make his bets online through an account set by his bookie.
It is estimated that billions of dollars will change hands during this World Cup. The police have said that they have set up a task force to stop illegal book-making syndicates.

The police have also warned that action would be taken against anyone involved in illegal betting, whether he was accepting or making the bets.

If you were to assume that sales of televisions go up before the World Cup year, you’d be right.
According to Tan Boon Ming SB managing director L.K. Tan, TV sales increase about 30%-40%. He notes that sales this year started to increase from April, and the majority are buying flat-panel (plasma and LCD) TVs.

Tan says sales this year have been very encouraging, and shows about a 15% increase over the corresponding period four years ago.

He notes that the viewer experience is going to be better this time around.
“Four years ago, flat-panel TVs were expensive, and people were buying conventional CRT TVs. Prices have now dropped and most TVs are high-definition types,” he says, adding that there is ample supply of TVs.

Broadcaster Astro has major plans for this tournament.
According to chief operating officer Henry Tan, 55% of its total customer base already has the sports package.

“We are delighted to bring the coverage of the World Cup to Malaysians. All 64 matches will be broadcast live, and available in HD as well,” he says.

Henry notes that this tournament is notable as it can be followed on multiple platforms. It is available on multi screens – TV, online, radio, mobile and on the ground, he says, adding that commentary will be available in both Bahasa Malaysia and Cantonese.

Henry also informs that he has friends asking him to expedite their subscriptions.
“Installation may take up to a week. Malaysians are notorious for doing things at the last minute, and we saw that happening during the Olympics last year. We are already deploying more installers to meet the demand, but we would like to urge customers to sign up now to make it in time,” says Henry

Henry also notes Malaysians are luckier compared to their counterparts in neighbouring countries.
“Astro offers the lowest-priced sports package in the region. A customer only pays RM66.95 or RM86.95 (for HD). In a neighbouring country we understand that the World Cup will cost viewers RM319.20,” says Tan.

Attack and defend

Fred Choo, the owner of Souled Out restaurant in Kuala Lumpur, says that their business model changes during the tournament.

“The lunch crowd, in particular, is reduced, as people are recovering from the late night matches. It drops by as much as 50%,” he says.

However, on the whole, business volume goes up as many people flock to the establishment to catch the live matches at night.

“We hit record sales during the last tournament (in 2006), and we already have standing orders for table bookings even though the tournament has yet to start,” he says.

Choo says that he has made significant upgrades to his establishment to target this niche market for the tournament.

“We have spent about RM200,000, and will be showing all live games in high-definition. In fact, we can even show two matches simultaneously in different sections of the restaurant,” he says.

Similarly, Martin Beins, executive director of Chaswood Resources Sdn Bhd, with outlets such as TGIF, Laundry Bar and The Apartment, is expecting routine to change during the tournament.

“Productivity does drop a little bit, as some employees stay up to watch the late games, and business drops for the lunch crowd,” he says.

He notes, however, that there has been an increase in the number of football fans – especially from the fairer sex.

“A lot of people get involved during the World Cup, and we see more women getting excited about it.”
Beins informs that business picks up during the latter stages of the tournament, and patrons still turn up for late games.

“During the last tournament, we were packed to the brim, even at the semi-final stage. People get a little more boisterous and it is fun to watch a game with a big crowd,” he says.

* Actual/real names withheld on request

By JOSEPH LOH and RASHVINJEET S. BEDI