An England fan who was sacked for pretending to be sick so she could attend England's victory over Denmark has a new role - as a football pundit for Pizza Express.
Nina Farooqi, 37, a digital content producer from Ilkley, West Yorkshire, 'pulled a sickie' after she was offered a last-minute ticket to Wednesday night's match at Wembley Stadium.
However, the plan went awry when Ms Farooqi was seen by millions on TV celebrating the goals that gave England a 2-1 win.
Her employers Composite Prime, which makes composite decking, were among them, and she was promptly sacked for bunking off work.
But now Pizza Express have enlisted her to provide commentary during tonight's Euro 2020 final against Italy on their social media channels.
Shadi Halliwell, Chief Customer Officer at PizzaExpress, said: “When we saw that avid football fan, Nina, pulled a sickie for the big semi-final she had our complete respect.
"We knew we wanted her us part of our own line-up somehow and that’s when we developed our own ‘PizzaExpess Pundit’."
She said Nina would be "running commentary with a difference" for Pizza Express on its social media feeds and ecnouraged people to follow @pizzaexpress.
Ms Halliwell added: "We were the only high-street restaurant that was around to witness the World Cup in 1966 so we know what it feels like when football comes home, and we couldn’t be prouder of our lads.
Ms Farooqi was spotted on TV draped in England flags with her friend and screaming as they put their arms around each other and pumped their fists in the air.
When she checked her phone at half-time, she had messages from friends as far away as Australia and the US telling her they had seen her on TV.
Nina said: "My phone blew up. The whole world had seen me celebrating. The rational part of me thought, 'oh no, is this going to come back to haunt me?'"
It did. Nina took a 6am train back to West Yorkshire to be at work on time on Thursday morning, but she received a call telling her not to bother coming in.
She said: "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."
Nina also works as a freelance photographer and video producer in the men's club game and the Women's Super League.
She said her friends in women's football in particular have supported her since she was sacked, and have found new freelance work for her.
