The Federation International Football Association (FIFA), manages the World Cup 2026, is the largest in tournament history, and co-hosted by Canada, Mexico & The United States from June 11 to July 19. Featuring a newly expanded 48-team format, it boasts 104 matches played across 16 host cities. It is the biggest sporting event on the planet with the opening match between Mexico Vs South Africa in Group A. It spans four distinct time zone across its 16 host countries in the US, Canada & Mexico. Because the matches are schedules in local North American times, its international fans face massive time gaps depending on their location. Viewers in Malaysia (MYT, UTC+8) are looking at a 12 to 15-hour difference, meaning most games kick off late at night or early in the morning. To manage global viewers, FIFA deliberately staggered kick off times to capture prime-time audiences in big markets, like Europe. (www.fifa.com>canadamexiciusa2026<)
As HRD practitioner and reflecting from previous years of the World Cup, Olympic, Super Bowl, the tournaments had disrupted work routines that some employees missed work by showing up late, leaving early, taking days off, attempted to work while hungover from late-night or early morning matches.
I understand from my son, CTO Fariz, a football fan who would opt for the “AI Catch-Up” which is a positive twist to the disruption by aptly using AI tools like ChatGPT, Claude, or Microsoft Copilot to automate tasks and reclaim time spend watching matches. In fact, most of IT savvy professionals anticipate their overall output to remain steady or even increase because of these tools. The World Cup landing in North America isn't just a cultural moment, it is shaping up to be one of the first large-scale, real-world tests of whether AI productivity tools actually keep work moving around the disrupted conditions.
In this context, I suggest rather than the management aggressively monitoring or policing employee activity, forward-thinking organizations are adapting positively by offering flexible scheduling, setting up team viewing sessions, or focusing on balanced productivity deliverables rather than fixed desk hours.
Share your passion for football through #GilaBola and stand a chance to win cash prizes worth up to RM1,200!
Find out how to join here. Don't miss out! T&Cs apply.
Zulkifly Baharom (hajizul50@gmail.com) is a content creator under the Newswav Creator programme, where you get to express yourself, be a citizen journalist, and at the same time monetize your content & reach millions of users on Newswav. Log in to creator.newswav.com and become a Newswav Creator now!
The User Content (as defined on Newswav Terms of Use) above including the views expressed and media (pictures, videos, citations etc) were submitted & posted by the author. Newswav is solely an aggregation platform that hosts the User Content. If you have any questions about the content, copyright or other issues of the work, please contact creator@newswav.com.
