According to the findings of a study conducted by Survey Lab for the French company Vente-privée, men's wives and girlfriends will be off the hook during the FIFA World Cup in Brazil. The survey, the results of which were published this week, indicates that 48 per cent of French men and 52 per cent of Italian men prefer to watch soccer without their female companion.

Having a spouse or girlfriend present can even ruin the experience of watching the game for 16 per cent of Belgian men and 13 per cent of French men.

For their part, a number of women seem to be just fine with this: 28 per cent of French women and 24 per cent of Belgian women wouldn't watch a soccer game with their husbands or boyfriends for anything. At the same time, some European women (18 per cent in France, 16 per cent in Belgium) admit to teasing the men in their lives and giving them a hard time when an important game is on.

It is worth noting, however, that the numbers seen in France, Italy and Belgium do not totally match those in Europe on the whole. Overall, the survey concluded that 59 per cent of Europeans were perfectly willing to watch the game with their female companions. The experience is even regarded as a positive one among 31 per cent of British women and 30 per cent of Spanish women.

Some men may not enjoy having to explain the rules to girlfriends and wives who may not share their passion for soccer. The survey revealed that on average, French women knew only 3.3 of the game's rules. Belgian women knew 3.1 and British women 3.5. Women in Germany, the Netherlands and Spain showed the best knowledge of the game, correctly citing more than 4 rules on average.

Jerseys, socks and face makeup

Regardless of when and with whom they'll watch the games, Europeans have every intention of celebrating the 2014 World Cup. Although they may not know the rules of the game by heart, over half of French women (51 per cent) say they are willing to wear the French jersey to show their support while watching the game (compared to 39 per cent across all of Europe). Among female fans of the British team, socks emerged as the most popular way of expressing their support (16 per cent). Face makeup will be worn primarily by men: 16 per cent of Dutch men and 15 per cent of German and British men said they would paint their face with their team colors. In the Netherlands, 5 per cent of fans are willing to paint their nails in the colors of the Dutch team.

But not all fans will be so devoted. It seems that plenty of Dutch people plan on getting their hair or makeup done during the game. Half of Europeans plan on eating while the games are on, while 33 per cent plan on logging onto social networks and 32 per cent plan on shopping online.

Conducted in February 2014, the survey questioned 5,912 members of the website Vente-privée aged between 25 and 40 in Belgium, France, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain and the U.K.