As bars and restaurants gear up for a surge of World-Cup-related business, eager fans have begun plotting ways to escape their obligations and join the neighbourhood parties during the games.

With the tournament being held in Germany this year, and with most of the soccer matches scheduled for the late afternoon or evening, European time, fans will have to find ways to clear large sections of what would normally be their work or school day.

"You've got mat leave, you've got pat leave and you've got soccer leave," said Peter Odle, who runs the company Urban Expeditions. "Diehard fans will be there for the early games; probably skipping school, probably skipping work, probably calling in sick."
—Oliver Moore, "Fans stake out turf to view World Cup," The Globe and Mail, May 26, 2006

Soccer leave: Italian auto giant Fiat, the nation's largest private company, has reached a deal with unions that will allow 270,000 workers time off to watch Italy's key first-round matches against Austria and Czechoslovakia.
—"'Bionic' Maradona is alive and kicking," The Toronto Star, June 6, 1990