Revenues at JJB Sports are deteriorating after the high street retailer reported turnover down 1.2 per cent in the first four and a half months of the year as it continues to blame declining sales of England replica football shirts.

Total revenue for the 18 weeks to June 3, 2007, decreased by 1.2 per cent while like-for-like sales, which strips out gains from stores opened during the period, fell by 1.8 per cent. Shares in JJB fell by 3.6 per cent to 263.25p in early trading.

Tom Knight, the chief executive of JJB, said today that sales of England football shirts had been particularly poor in the past four to five weeks compared with the same period last year, when the World Cup had begun and sales of branded jerseys had increased.

JJB has previously stated that it expects revenues generated from England replica football shirts to be £20 million lower than the £113 million worth of sales they contributed to total sales last year which reached £810.3 million.

JJB said today that if it stripped out England shirt revenue, sales for the first 18 weeks of its financial year increased by 2.6 per cent.

However, this is still a decline from sales generated in the first nine weeks of the year when JJB said total sales rose by 4.3 per cent and like-for-like figures increased by 3.2 per cent.

Despite falling sales, JJB said it had improved its margins which increased by 2.6 per cent compared to the same period last year when the group was hit by competitive pricing on England football shirts.

The company said today that sales from its shops which include sections dedicated to adidas and Nike was above revenue generated from its traditional outlets.

It plans to increase its Nike in-store areas from 53 shops to 100 and its adidas concessions from 83 outlets to 200.

JJB said that its indoor football centres and health clubs were trading well, and revenue rose by 21.9 per cent.

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