Ian Appleyard: Work or watching England in a pub? Well, what would you do?

According to a survey by bookmakers Betfair, hundreds of thousands of people are already planning to ring in sick or take time off during the tournament in South Africa.

That is great news for the country's publicans who will no doubt be playing host to a large number of the absentees – but no good if you are a manager of a warehouse who ends up short on staff.

England's opening game in Group G is against the USA, kicking off at 7.30pm on Saturday, June 12 – which will not be a problem for the Monday to Friday brigade – and the second, against Algeria, is another evening kick-off six days later. But the first major test of employee loyalty comes on Wednesday, June 23 when Fabio Capello's men meet Slovenia at three in the afternoon.

Fortunately for the paymasters, Slovenia are hardly big box office when it comes to the world of football (only West Bromwich Albion's Robert Koren plays in English football for example) so that may persuade some fans to put up with work in the knowledge that bigger and better games should lie ahead.

Potential hangovers on Thursday, however, could be an issue.

Assuming that England qualify for the second round – of course they will, won't they? – our next fixture will fall on the weekend of June 26-27 – against one of the Group D teams namely Germany, Australia, Ghana and Serbia.

The fixture schedule has also been kind on workers at the quarter-final stage, too, as England, if involved, will play either on Friday, July 2 at 7.30pm or Saturday afternoon.

Only the first of the four quarter-finals is during regular working hours, on the Friday afternoon, and that could yet involve Holland, Brazil or Portugal.

Both semi-finals are midweek night games (July 6 and 7) and the final is on Sunday, June 11.

The survey of 2,011 UK adults aged 18 or over commissioned by Betfair, and undertaken by Opinium research.

Supporters were asked what they would sacrifice in order to watch England matches this summer and also how far they would go if it could guarantee victory in the final at Soccer City, Johannesburg, on Sunday, July 11.

Alarmingly, 18 per cent said they would 'run around naked for a day', while 26 per cent of males agreed to wear a dress for 24 hours.

Even worse, a disturbed one per cent of England supporters said they would actually 'chop off an arm'.

Now there is loyalty and there is plain stupidity and, I think it is safe to say that many of you would not even chop off as much as a trouser leg for the sake of England glory. Well, not unless the Football Association are willing to fund a new pair.

Betfair's Head of UK PR Andy Lulham said: "As temperatures soar this summer, offices around the country will experience record levels of 'World Cup fever'. But at Betfair we are backing England to win the World Cup so it's reassuring to see the nation is right with us.

"Traditional bookmakers would like to see England lose the final on penalties to maximise their profits, but our model means that's not the case for us."

So there it is folks. All you need to know to plan your summer of football.