Reseller ANS will confront this afternoon’s World Cup mania head on by throwing a beach party for its staff.

The Manchester-based Cisco Gold partner claims the knees-up will ensure its staff don’t pull sickies as England get set for their crunch match with Slovenia.

Fancy dress is compulsory, as the attached picture indicates.

According to CRN’s poll this week, 48 per cent of channel firms said they had made provisions for their staff to watch the World Cup. 26 per cent said they had not.

ANS managing director Paul Sweeney said the latter group are simply burying their heads in the sand.

“I have read all sorts of surveys in the last couple of weeks – one quoting that nine out of ten companies plan to do nothing for staff during the World Cup and another saying that 32 per cent of England fans would skip a day’s work to watch the game.

“With situations like the World Cup, we believe it’s better to embrace the atmosphere rather than fight it and potentially end up with staff calling in sick."

Sweeney told CRN that staff would be making up the hours missed later in the week.