England’s failure to qualify for the Euro 2008 football tournament means that businesses could miss out on an estimated £2 billion bonanza, experts said yesterday.

Sports stores, bookmakers and pub groups are all expected to feel the financial chill after the defeat by Croatia at Wembley on Wednesday.

Analysts say the high street will miss out on the £650 million boost that normally accompanies England’s participation in a major summer tournament such as the World Cup or the European Championships.

NPD Sports Tracking Europe, a sports consultancy, predicted that total sales of replica shirts could be £100 million lower next year.

Expert View

The faults that lie deep within the nation's football will not be cured simply by handing Steve McClaren his P45

Martin Samuel

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The British Beer & Pub Association estimated that the disaster would cost them the sales of about 35 million pints – between £80 million and £100 million.

Bookmakers said that the absence of all four home nations from Euro 2008 would cost them at least £250 million. Richard Glynn, chief executive of Sporting Index, the spread betting firm, said: “A major football tournament without England will be like Christmas without turkey. There simply won’t be the interest levels.”

Simon Chadwick, professor of Sport Business Strategy and Marketing at Coventry Business School, said: “A successful run to the 2008 final would have led to a £2 billion bonanza for the economy.” Richard Hyman, managing director of Verdict Consulting, added: “If the feel-good factor accounts for half-a-per cent of GDP, then £2 billion may even be too small.”

Umbro, the England football team’s official kit maker, and Sports Direct, owner of the Sports World high street shops, both issued profit warnings yesterday on the back of the defeat.

The loss is expected to blow a £15 million hole in Umbro’s profits, given the need to discount the price of England shirts. Umbro sold four million tops last year, but England’s poor form under Steve McClaren meant only one million had been sold by September. The company has cut back its original sales projection for the new red England away kit.

It said yesterday: “The effect on 2008 revenues, though still unclear, will be more pronounced due to a substantial reduction in our expected sales volumes for the new jersey.”

Profits at Sports Direct, the company run by the controversial Newcastle United owner Mike Ashley, are expected to fall by about £10 million as a result of England’s nonqualification.

The retailer is contracted to buy 65 per cent of all England shirts made by Umbro but has struggled to sell them.

Analysts said ITV’s advertising revenues could fall by as much as £10 million given the likely lower audience figures next summer.

City analysts reduced profits forecasts for Regent Inns, which owns the Walkabout Bar chain, which relies on televised sport, by about £1 million.