New England shirt criticised – just like the team . . .

8:51am Tuesday 15th January 2008

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THE England football team's inglorious performances on the pitch have been matched by the reception of the new team shirt off it, with a major high street retailer attacking its poor design.

JJB Sports, which owns four stores in the region including a major outlet at WestQuay Retail Park in Southampton, revealed profits will fall below expectations after it was forced to slash prices over Christmas to shift a large backlog of stock, including England football shirts.

New chief executive Chris Ronnie hit out at shirt maker Umbro, suggesting the design, which is not officially unveiled until February, was not strong.

"We don't think that Umbro has gone about the design in the right way,'' he said. "The design of the new England away shirt is not as strong as it could have been, and we made that very clear to Umbro when it was presented to us.'' Like a number of sports goods retailers, JJB Sports will suffer from the England team's failure to qualify for Euro 2008, and had ordered far fewer shirts than normal.

David Beckham is pictured after England lost to Croatia at Wembley, ending their Euro 2008 dream.