Today sees the start of a month-long football fest. Newspapers, TV schedules and supermarket shelves are groaning under the weight of World Cup coverage and memorabilia.

Wherever you go and whatever you do from now until July 11, it will be all but impossible to escape the wall-to-wall soccer action from South Africa.

Many women will become “football widows” for the duration as their partners follow England’s fortunes from the pub or the living room armchair.

It may be only a game, but football gets the emotions going like almost nothing else, it seems. World Cup hype is likely to become near-hysteria if Wayne Rooney and co progress to the latter stages of the tournament.

And, as we all know, when emotions are running high, the result can be ugly as well as euphoric. Statistics show that during the last World Cup, in 2006, domestic violence surged by 31 per cent across the UK, especially around the time England games were played.

This year, Harrow Council has launched a campaign to try to prevent football-related domestic violence. Posters have gone up in the borough’s pubs and bars to highlight the links between heavy drinking during soccer matches and attacks in the home.

Although most people don’t resort to violence when their team loses a football match, many will be affected in some way by this summer’s World Cup – and it may have an impact on their relationships.

Moodiness, a lack of interest in family activities and frequent visits to the pub may cause friction between couples, and if a relationship is going through a sticky patch already, it is likely to make matters worse.

Here, then, are a few tips for “football widows” on how to survive the next few weeks:

• If you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em: Unless you can’t abide “the beautiful game”, decide that you’ll enter into the spirit of the World Cup party alongside your other half
• If you prefer your husband at home rather than in the pub, suggest he invites his mates to your house. Then you can lay on some food as well as drink so they don’t end up too sozzled!
• Arrange a trip to the gym, health spa or restaurant with a girlfriend to coincide with each of the England matches
• Strike a deal with your man: He can watch as much football as he wants on the understanding that when it’s all over, he takes you away for the weekend
• Enjoy your own “extra time” – indulge in some retail therapy without hubby looking over your shoulder
• If your partner has a tendency to become belligerent when beer and football collide, make yourself scarce. Arrange to stay with a friend or relative on the days England are playing or even book into a hotel
• Try not to get wound up by your partner’s obsession with the World Cup. Keep reminding yourself it’s ONLY a month – and then it’s another four years before it all happens again!