England fan who pulled sickie to go to Wembley sacked after boss spotted her on TV

A woman who called in sick to watch England’s semi-final win at Wembley on Wednesday was sacked after her boss spotted her celebrating on TV.

Thirty-seven year old Nina Farooqi, a sports photographer who works a variety of freelance content production jobs, called in sick at her office job after her friend won last minute tickets to the historic match against Denmark in a work raffle.

Nina, from Ilkley near Leeds, admitted that she thought it’d be unlikely to get the time off at such short notice, so she instead decided to call in sick and catch the Wednesday lunchtime train from Leeds to London Kings Cross. 

Nina Farooqi

However, Nina’s sly plan was foiled when a TV camera zoomed in on her and her friend celebrating England’s equalising goal, ultimately projecting her face across the whole country. Presenter Stacey Dooley even (accidentally) shared Nina’s face on her Instagram Stories when celebrating the goal herself from home.

So, as she was catching the 6am train back to Leeds the next morning, she received a phone call from her boss who told her bluntly to ‘not bother coming in.’

Speaking to The Daily Telegraph, Nina explained: “They said they’d seen I’d been at the game, and I was honest about why I did it. 

@beanhive / Instagram

“But I didn’t get any sympathy at all and they said that’s it. That’s their call and the consequence of what I did… It’s mixed emotions: we’re through to the final, I’m still on that high, but I’ve also lost my job.”

But despite losing her job, Nina would ‘do it all over again.’ She said: “There is a bit of regret, no one wants to get fired, but then also I would have hated the regret of missing out. I’d do it all over again.”

She also added that her office job only funded her football life, which sees her freelance as a photographer and video producer in the men’s club game and across the Women’s Super League.

Now that’s what you call dedication.