Major sports businesses have claimed that England’s failure to qualify for the Euro 2008 football tournament will harm their business prospects and lower their profits in the next year.

Major sports businesses have claimed that England’s failure to qualify for the Euro 2008 football tournament will harm their business prospects and lower their profits in the next year.

In their statements post England’s loss to Croatia on Wednesday, England’s kit manufacturer Umbro and the retailer Sports Direct both expressed their apprehensions about the adverse effect on their sales figures.

With a question mark on their profits, the sports manufacturers/retailers experienced an abrupt drop in their share values. Shares of Sports Direct slid down by a massive 15%. Another sports retailer, JJB Sports, also reported their shares falling by 3.4%. Umbro shares fell 2.3%, but conditions would have been worse for Umbro had it not been for the imminent takeover by Nike. The chief concern of Umbro management is not so much the sale of the England jerseys as the new England away kit, which is due to be launched in 2008.

Analysing the present situation, professor of sport business strategy and marketing at Coventry Business School, Simon Chadwick said that England’s defeat connotes a deeper impact on the national economy, rather than just lowering retail sales.

Earlier it had been estimated that England’s successful run to the 2008 final would earn the nation a £2bn bonanza. In the present scenario, however, even businesses not directly related to football will suffer loss. Thus, pubs and product retailers are foreseeing a slow business and limited profits even in the championship season. The British Retail Consortium (BRC) has predicted that the total earnings during Euro 2008 will be half of what the earnings were during the World Cup.

A study has also suggested that the success of the English national team boosts up the morale of the workers, resulting in an increase in productivity.