(Newsweek) — No one knows just how much this kind of football obsession will cost the Brazilians, or any other nation for that matter. But lately the pundits have made a sport of guessing. Most recently, Willem Smit, a researcher at the prestigious Institute for Management Development (IMD) in Lausanne, Switzerland, flashed a red card at the whole Cup culture. Smit reckoned that if just half the workforce in contending nations knocks off to cheer their side on during the World Cup games, the cost to the global economy could be $10.4 billion in lost production time alone. That figure could double if all national workers in competing countries decide to go AWOL to root for their respective teams—which is not as farfetched as it seems, given that the Cup will likely draw a billion or more viewers worldwide. “Allowing people to take time out to watch football during working hours is simply too costly, untimely, and unfair,” Smit said during an online debate on the Cup.
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