Business as usual expected for Euro 2008.

England football fans' misery is likely to be offset by joy from music retailers over the next few weeks as they anticipate trading will escape virtually unscathed from Euro 2008.

Previous major footballing tournaments have been disastrous for music stores as fans stay away from the high street, instead choosing to remain at home watching matches on television.

But the absence this time of all the home nations, plus the scheduling of all matches in the evening, means the event is expected to have little or no negative effect on business.

Era chairman Paul Quirk says, "It's a bit low-key. A lot of people will be glad because we've got the Olympics coming up and I don't know whether we could have suffered two key sporting events. From a retail point of view, we're more than happy Steve McLaren's team didn't qualify."

Quirk also welcomes the fact that the earliest matches for Euro 2008, which begins this Saturday, will kick off at 5pm with others starting at 7.45pm.

"It's a much better set-up," he says. "With some of the England games previously, people would have barbecues and drinks and that could take up an afternoon. That took an awful lot of money out of music retailing. Even though a lot of shops had window displays, it didn't really bring people in."

England's failure to qualify has also affected the release schedules, with the usual mixture of official songs, novelty singles and themed compilations a big footballing tournament usually attracts conspicuous by their absence.