They may be unwelcome to many, but the notorious vuvuzela is selling well in Britain’s third-largest supermarket chain.

Sainsbury’s said yesterday that World Cup memorabilia, in particular the plastic vuvuzela horn, were all showing strong sales in spite of the slow group sales seen over the first quarter of 2010.

In a trading update, Sainsbury’s Chief Executive Justin King called the vuvuzela horn ‘the must have item’ for any true football fan. The group says that it has already sold over 40,000 of the vuvuzelas with English branding at a cost of just £2 each. It is forecasting this number to double by the end of the tournament, with the number potentially becoming greater should England embark on a run to the semi-finals or further.

Anyone who has watched the opening games of the World Cup can attest that the monotone drone of the vuvuzela has become the soundtrack to the tournament, something which has irritated television broadcasters who complain that the noise drowns out the commentary and action. Some players have also used the horns as an excuse for claiming they could not hear the ref’s whistle, although the Greek team has taken to inviting vuvuzela groups to play at training to customize themselves to match day conditions.

Young England winger Theo Walcott was dramatically dropped from the World Cup squad yesterday, much to the disappointment of the marketing team at Marks & Spencer.

Walcott, 21, was one of the faces in a multi-million pound advertising campaign for the tournament, with most people assuming he had already booked his ticket to South Africa. He, along with Matthew Upson, Steven Gerrard and Emile Heskey, is part of a series of ads where he dons Nike sportswear and Marks & Spencer designer suits.

Unfortunately, England manager Fabio Capello telephoned the Arsenal forward during a round of golf with the shock news that he was not part of the final 23-man travelling squad. Though included in the initial 30-man group, Walcott can consider himself unlucky to be one of the ‘sorry seven’ that missed the final cut. He was joined by Scott Parker, Tom Huddlestone, Darren Bent, Adam Johnson, Michael Dawson and Leighton Baines.

Marks & Spencer, one of the official sponsors for the English World Cup team, has designed the £120 grey suits which will not make an appearance in the Walcott wardrobe. Hopefully he did manage to land some gear from Nike, who actually made a TV campaign which shows Walcott playing in the finals. He had also had his face ‘carved’ by Nike onto a huge billboard in West London that echoes Mount Rushmore.

Supermodel Naomi Campbell, so often embroiled in controversy, has found herself in the midst of yet another scandal.

The UK model has refused to give evidence in a tribunal investigating war crimes of Charles Taylor, the former Liberian dictator. Campbell refused to be drawn into discussions over whether she was the recipient of an uncut, or ‘blood diamond’, back in 1997 when she and was visiting South Africa.

Both the British supermodel and the Liberian genocidal warlord were guests of the South African President Nelson Mandela, who at the time also hosted Mia Farrow, who was campaigning to bring world attention to the atrocities that were occurring on the border between Liberian and Sierra Leone. It was widely believed that the terror campaign carried out by Taylor’s forces was funded by the sales of diamonds.

Farrow told US reporters that she learned of the gift over breakfast one morning, after Campbell had told of the previous evening where men knocked on her door and claimed that they were representing President Charles Taylor. They then gave Campbell a huge diamond.

Taylor is currently on trail at The Hague, where some 50 former victims are planning on giving evidence that he was in South Africa with the purpose of buying weapons using diamonds. They claim the Farrow story about Campbell adds further proof to the rumours.

Campbell, who was recently approached on the subject during a benefit show to raise money for Haiti, refused to comment other than saying she did not receive any diamonds, just before she slammed the camera against the floor.