England’s failed bid for Euro 2008 is the first time the team hasn’t qualified for a major tournament since the 1994 World Cup.

England’s dramatic exit from Euro 2008 last night drove Sports Direct to issue a profit warning today, with Umbro also stating that it expects kit sales to suffer.

Sports Direct, which is England’s largest sporting goods retailer, originally said in September that it was confident it would see limited growth in the current financial year.

In a press statement released today it instead warned: “As England have not qualified for the 2008 European Football Championships, the company can no longer be confident of achieving that level of financial performance and believes at this stage that pre-exceptional EBITDA for the current financial year is likely to be below that achieved in the last year.”

Umbro meanwhile, which is currently subject to a takeover bid from Nike, said: “England’s failure to qualify… and reduced levels of England Home jersey sell-through at retail in 2007, will have some effect on revenues in the current financial year. 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 Away jersey.”

Euro 2008 is the first major tournament England has failed to qualify for since the 1994 World Cup.

By Natasha Piscitelli