Soccer shirts are flying from the shops

With today marking the last Football Friday before kick-off of the World Cup, consumers are stretching their credit cards and cash to snatch up the continent's first World Cup clothing and regalia.

"Sales of T-shirts, tops and all merchandise related to the Soccer World Cup are selling very well. This goes for both official as well as T-shirts. This also goes for merchandise such as stickers relating to the World Cup sold at CNA," Steve Binnie chief financial officer of the Edcon group told BuaNews.

The Edcon group is a multi-brand retailer which owns stores like Edgars, Jet and CNA.

With six-days to go before the first match of the tournament between South Africa and Mexico, stores are seeing more and more people jostling for their soccer clothing and accessories like caps and vuvuzelas.

"People are buying South African soccer related items, as well as that of other countries, like Brazil," said Binnie, adding that the company had noticed that people were flocking to their stores, particularly on Football Fridays.

Divisional Director at Woolworths Brett Kaplan said customers are squarely behind the country.

"That's what we're seeing in stores. We anticipated this, based on research conducted over many months on previous World Cups and other major sporting events. Support for team South Africa stretches well beyond t-shirts," said Kaplan. - Buanews