The England football team’s lacklustre performance in the World Cup may be a cause of frustration amongst the many millions of fans, but business-leaders now also have cause for concern, says Thames Valley accountants and business advisers James Cowper.

Most fans and commentators would have predicted an easy route to the knock-out stages of the World Cup, with Wednesday’s game against Slovenia a formality. As it now stands, Wednesday’s game is now critical and is likely to cost the Thames Valley economy upwards of £25m in lost earnings and productivity.

Mike Farwell, a partner at James Cowper said: “Most fans would have reckoned on England already qualifying for the next stage of the World Cup, but following a fairly lacklustre performance so far we would estimate that 20 per cent of the workforce will take time off to watch the game. The cost to businesses of staff taking time off or downing tools to watch the game is likely to cost UK PLC upwards of £500m and business in the Thames Valley £25m.

“If the England team wins and progresses in the tournament, the feel-good factor and boost to the economy will be terrific and is likely to easily outweigh this cost. But if the team fail to qualify, this is one large bill to pick up at a time when budgets are under ever closer scrutiny.”