World Cup craze, soccer widows and widowers in China

Beijing, June 30 (UNI) The FIFA World Cup in Germany is giving rise to soccer widows' and 'widowers' in China as soccer-crazy lovers are not finding time to meet.

According to China Daily newspaper, an internet survey by Zhaopin.com from among 4,000 people, mostly from Shanghai, has found that eighty per cent of men and 20 per cent of women who responded said they watched almost every match or spend around an hour out of work every day to read World Cup news on the Internet or discuss matches with colleagues.

''This enthusiasm, however, gave rise to large numbers of 'soccer widows' and 'widowers,' the daily reported.

The survey suggested about 60 percent of women and 46 percent of men suffered, as soccer fanatic spouses cared about nothing else.

''I hate the World Cup. It almost pushed me to the edge of divorce,'' Lisa Wang, an office worker, was quoted as saying.

Married to an IT sales manager, Wang said her soccer fan husband wouldn't miss a single game. Every day after work, her husband would head to a pub to watch the games with friends. He only returns home after the last match ends in the morning.

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