A woman was sacked from her job after pulling a sickie to watch England's Euro 2020 semi-final win over Denmark at Wembley.
37-year-old Nina Farooqi, who works as a Digital Content Producer for Composite Prime, a West Yorkshire-based decking and cladding company, rang in sick on Wednesday when her friend won last-minute tickets in a raffle.
She assumed she would not be allowed the day off due to a lack of staff and so said she was unwell instead.
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Nina then got the lunchtime train from Leeds to London Kings Cross and made her to Wembley for the historic fixture, where over 60,000 fans were present.
All was going well but when England scored the equaliser late in the first half, Nina and her friend were captured on TV celebrating in the stands.
The camera zoomed in on the pair and their face was visible to millions of viewers around the country and even across the globe as friends in Australia and the United States spotted her on the broadcast.
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Sitting behind the goal, Nina featured on TV presenter Stacey Dooley's Instagram story and even reposted the snap herself.
Nina stayed over in the capital and got the 6am train back home to Bradford but it was during that journey that her boss fired her.
"They said they'd seen I'd been at the game, and I was honest about why I did it," Nina told The Telegraph.
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"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.
"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.
"This hasn't come around since 1996, I vividly remember crying on my mum's sofa when Gareth Southgate missed his penalty, and the football fan in me just couldn't do it. Football is my life."
In response, Charlie Taylor, director at Composite Prime, said he had "no choice" to relieve Nina of her duties for breaching her employment contract.
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However, he did also reveal all staff will be given the day off after the Euro 2020 final on Sunday.
"It's an exciting time for everyone in England and given the opportunity, we would have encouraged attendance to such an important football match," he told the Daily Mail.
"Unfortunately on this occasion our employee lied, taking one day off sick to attend the football match on Wednesday 7 July.
"This was in breach of her employment contract and so we had no choice but to take the appropriate action. As a business we value honesty and integrity, and we don't tolerate any employee taking advantage of our policies.
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"Like many businesses will be doing across the county, our staff will be having Monday morning off to hopefully recover from celebrating an England win!"
Aside from her office job, Nina regularly freelanced as a photographer and video producer in football and has already been offered work in a field she is massively passionate about
Topics:ย Football, Euro 2020, England, Denmark