Woman, 37, is fired from her job after boss sees her on TV celebrating goal at England match 

A worker who ‘pulled a sickie’ to watch England’s semi-final win was sacked after her boss saw her on TV.

Nina Farooqi, 37, made an excuse to dodge work in Yorkshire after her friend offered her a last-minute ticket to the historic night at Wembley.

But the face of the digital content producer, from Ilkley, near Bradford, was beamed around the world when a TV camera zoomed in on her and her friend celebrating England’s equalising goal.

When catching the 6am train back up north the next morning to be at work on time, Miss Farooqi said her boss phoned her to tell her not to bother coming in.

She told The Daily Telegraph: ‘They said they’d seen I’d been at the game, and I was honest about why I did it. 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.’ 

Miss Farooqi had initially thought it would be unlikely she would be spotted in a crowd of over 60,000.

But when the avid football fan checked her phone at half-time, she realised her game was up. She said: ‘We were all over the news, my face was on every television screen across the world.’

Miss Farooqi added: ‘It’s mixed emotions: we’re through to the final, I’m still on that high, but I’ve also lost my job.’

Miss Farooqi had initially thought it would be unlikely she would be spotted in a crowd of over 60,000. Harry Kane and the England team are seen above celebrating after the win