World Cup 2026: Your employer checklist

Get ahead of the World Cup before it gets ahead of you

The FIFA World Cup 2026 kicks off on 11 June and runs through to 19 July. Whether football’s coming home, going to Madrid, Paris, or you genuinely couldn’t tell us who’s playing – it’ll be the main topic in workplaces across the UK for six weeks.

Most matches are outside normal working hours, but tournaments have a way of showing up at work anyway. Late-night kick-offs, leave requests, sick days, a few too many pints, workplace banter, and employee engagement challenges are all manageable as long as you’ve thought about it ahead of time. 

So we’ve put together a short, practical HR and Health & Safety checklist to help you do exactly that. 

What’s inside the World Cup 2026 guide? 

• Annual leave and attendance planning 
• Sickness absence and lateness  
• Employee engagement 
• Policies and procedures 
• Health & Safety consideration 
• Communication planning 

Why it’s worth downloading the checklist? 

The World Cup only comes around every four years and can boost the mood and morale in workplaces. But, it can also mean: 

• More absences and lateness 
• Last-minute annual leave requests 
• Workplace tensions and inappropriate ‘banter’ 
• Alcohol-related conduct issues 

Use this checklist to prepare ahead of time. 

Who is the checklist for? 

• Business owners 
• HR professionals 
• Line managers 
• Operations mangers