So far, and there are a few days left, retailers have not made a big noise about the World Cup and with good reason.

So far, and there are a few days left, retailers have not made a big noise about the World Cup and with good reason.

The World Cup is normally associated with a spike in the sales of things beginning with the letter B. Beer, barbeques and bangers are all supposed to sell like hot cakes as a direct consequence of our love of the beautiful game and retailers are rarely slow at rolling out flags bearing the cross of St George, south of the border at least.

Yet, with just three days to go before the footie fest kicks off, there is a conspicuous lack of visual merchandising action. A quick stroll along Oxford Street reveals the fact that with the exception of the big sports chains, there is almost nothing that relates to the World Cup.

This is not to say, of course, that there won’t be. Retailers may well be keeping their powder dry as far as celebrating the event is concerned and this week may see the ‘Engerland’ banners being rolled out and elaborate window schemes being rapidly installed, all at the last minute.

The question to be asked however is whether the World Cup 2014 really is worth marking? For many fashion retailers currently, the predominant theme is summer music festivals – an excuse for window displays with bright colours and an all-round sense of the seasonal. These schemes are not subject to the vagaries of whether a ball will elude the grasp of Joe Hart and whether the national team will be knocked out in the group stages in consequence. If this does happen, then any World Cup bunting will wind up looking a mite lacklustre by the closing week of this month.

And given the generally low level of expectations for the possible success of England in Brazil then it should hardly come as a surprise that few are choosing to do much in the way of in-store or window displays that have any relation to the event. It’ll be a shame if England is knocked out in the competition’s early stages, but then tomorrow’s another day and there will still be stock to be shifted.

Maybe it really is better highlighting yet another endless summer of highly commercial love as exemplified by the UK summer festival scene. At least if it rains the show continues, unlike when a friendly is played against Honduras.