Economic advisers in England may be the only blokes happy that the Three Lions were eliminated from the World Cup in the second round.

The international soccer tournament was expected to cost the British economy about $7.8 billion (all figures CND) — and that was if British workers checked out the matches for only an hour a day, according to sales intelligence firm Inside View.

The firm has been gathering data on how productivity and economies will be affected by the World Cup, and says about 80 per cent of the world’s population has been watching at least some part of the games since they began on June 11.

Turns out that on top of turning us into flag-waving fanatics, the games are making us slackers.

Twenty-six per cent of people surveyed said they would take some time off work to catch some soccer. In the United States, the games will likely cost companies 10 minutes of productivity a day.

The Centre for Economics and Business Research in London, on the other hand, said the games could generate as much as $2.58 billion for England’s economy, the result of a spike in World-Cup related consumer spending along with increased investment in advertising.

Those predicted benefits take into account the bill for lost productivity, which the Centre estimates is around a mere $1.45 billion.

The Centre is blasting a different tune on its vuvuzela than it was during the 2006 World Cup, when it estimated that lost productivity from the championships alone would cost about $5.2 billion (inflation included) worldwide. Europe and South America’s economies were the hardest hit.

There are no studies on the World Cup’s expected impact on the Canadian economy, though Toronto bars have been reporting roaring business during the games.

In host country South Africa, employers have adopted some leniency, allowing their staff to watch the matches and revel in the first World Cup to be staged in Africa.

“Where possible, employers tried, especially when the South African team was still playing, to allow workers to leave earlier if they could,” Gert van Deventer, a spokesman for the Federated Employers Organization of South Africa, told The Associated Press.

“Some employers even said that they set up television screens and would arrange that employees should come together on one afternoon and make something of it.”