Portuguese parliament changes schedule for key World Cup match

A view of the parliament building in Lisbon. Portugal's lawmakers said they had changed their schedule on the day of a key World Cup match between the country and Mexico next month so that members of parliament could watch the game.

Portugal's lawmakers said they had changed their schedule on the day of a key World Cup match between the country and Mexico next month so that members of parliament could watch the game.

Parliament was scheduled to debate a military reform law on the afternoon of June 21, at the same time as the match, but the proposed bill will now be discussed in the morning, said Communist lawmaker Bernardino Soares.

"What wouldn't be acceptable would be for there to be no work that day. What we did was alter the schedule to allow the work scheduled for that day to take place by adapting it to the time of the game," he told news radio TSF.

The change had the approval of the ruling Socialists, who have a majority in the 230-seat assembly, and the main opposition centre-right Social Democrats.

"It is better to have an effective, hard-working session of parliament like all others on Wednesday morning than have a session in the afternoon with a bare majority of lawmakers present," said Social Democrat lawmaker Antonio Montalvao Machado.

The move was swiftly condemned by the Confederation of Portuguese Industry, a major business group, which said lawmakers were setting a bad example.

"This sends a very bad signal. I don't see how employers can now turn down employees who also propose changes in timetables when they want to watch football," the president of the group, Francisco van Zeller, told TSF.

Portugal is pooled with Mexico, Iran and Angola in World Cup Group D with their first match against debutants Angola in Cologne, Germany on June 11, two days after the start of the tournament.

The team's matches with Angola and Iran fall on a weekend, posing no conflict for lawmakers.

Mexico and Portugal are seen as the two strongest squads in the group. Portugal, which was unbeaten in its World Cup qualifying campaign, is currently ranked number seven in the world by FIFA, three places behind Mexico.