WHILE IT MAY be a common adage that sport and politics shouldn’t mix, the two areas of public life have a habit of overlapping all the same. 

That has proved to be the case once again this week in England, where a row has broken out over a change to the colour of the St George’s cross on the England football jersey.

On the team’s new Nike kit, the traditionally red cross has been changed to include shades of pink and blue, in what the company called a “playful update” ahead of Euro 2024.

Safe to say a lot of people are not happy about it, and of course it has inevitably been turned into another front in the culture wars, with The Telegraph going with the headline: “England kit gives St George’s flag ‘woke’ rebrand.” 

In an article in The Telegraph today, the newspaper quoted recent Tory defector Lee Anderson calling the change “virtue-signalling, namby-pamby, woke nonsense”.

The country’s most senior political leaders have weighed in as well, with Prime Minister Rishi Sunak saying Nike “should not mess” with the national flag.

'When it comes to our national flags we shouldn't mess with them because they are a source of pride, identity, who we are.'

PM Sunak says he "prefers the original" England shirt, after Nike amended the colours of the St George's Cross to a multicoloured design for the new kit. pic.twitter.com/1caGcd6AxJ

— Sky News (@SkyNews) March 22, 2024

Opposition leader Keir Starmer, who has made a concerted effort since taking over the Labour leadership to make the party appear more “patriotic”, also had some thing to say.

He went further than Sunak and said Nike should reconsider the design choice. 

He told The Sun: “I’m a big football fan, I go to England games, men and women’s games, and the flag is used by everybody. It is a unifier. It doesn’t need to be changed. We just need to be proud of it.

“So, I think they should just reconsider this and change it back. I’m not even sure they can properly explain why they thought they needed to change it in the first place.”

Labour’s shadow attorney general Emily Thornberry told Sky News: “You wouldn’t expect Nike to go off and have a look at the Welsh flag and decide to change the dragon to a pussycat”. 

Reform UK’s leader Nigel Farage has also called for the flag to be changed, saying, “for once our leaders are getting it right”. 

A petition on Change.org calling for a design change had already attracted more than 21,000 signatures by midday today.

The BBC has reported today that the FA, English football’s governing body, has defended the change in colouring , saying it was not the first time the colour had been changed.  

It said the English flag would be displayed prominently at home games, “as it always is”.

It added that the new 2024 home kit was “meant as a tribute to the 1966 World Cup winning team”.

A Nike spokesperson previously told media outlets: “The England 2024 home kit disrupts history with a modern take on a classic.

“The trim on the cuffs takes its cues from the training gear worn by England’s 1966 heroes, with a gradient of blues and reds topped with purple.

“The same colours also feature an interpretation of the flag of St George on the back of the collar.”