- There has been a controversial change to the England flag on the home shirt
- The FA’s former commercial director, Navin Singh, signed off on the change
- We need to put in a dominant English performance. Brazil brings glamour, but it’s their reserves! It all starts podcast
The FA director who approved the controversial changes to the England flag on the home shirt, which was due to be worn for the first time against Brazil on Saturday, left Wembley last year.
Mail Sport has learned that the new kit deal with Nike has been signed by former FA commercial director Navin Singh, who is now Chief Commercial Officer of Six Nations Rugby.
The much-criticized changes to the St. George’s Cross introduced by Nike, which added navy blue, light blue and purple to the traditional red cross, were approved by Singh in the summer of 2022.
They were only made public when the kit went on sale earlier this week, causing a strong reaction, with Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and Opposition Leader Keir Starmer both calling on the FA to return to using the traditional flag.
Singh left the FA last year after being promoted to a senior role by the Six Nations. It is unclear whether the FA’s chief executive, Mark Bullingham, was aware of the changes Nike had made to the flag before the contract was signed, while the FA’s current commercial director, James Gray, was not involved at all as he only joined the organization last December.
The changes to the St. George’s Cross introduced by Nike, which added navy blue, light blue and purple to the traditional red cross, were approved by Singh in the summer of 2022.
Nike launched England’s new home and away kits earlier this week, but they were met with criticism
Your browser does not support iframes.
The FA defended the new shirt in a statement on Friday, which also pointed out that kit manufacturers have tinkered with the flag in the past. A shirt produced by Umbro ahead of the 2012 European Championship featured a large number of crosses in four different colours, while the goalkeeper shirt from the same season was covered in crosses in different shades of green.
The FA insisted the new shirt was inspired by the training kit worn by England’s World Cup-winning side in 1966.
“The new England 2024 home kit features a number of design elements intended to pay tribute to the 1966 World Cup-winning team,” a statement said.
‘The colored piping on the cuffs is inspired by the training gear worn by England’s 1966 heroes, and the same colors can also be found in the design on the back of the collar. It’s not the first time that different colored St George’s Cross-inspired designs have been used on England shirts.
‘We are very proud of the red and white St. George’s cross, the English flag. We understand what it means to our fans, and how it unites and inspires, and it will be prominently displayed at Wembley tomorrow – as always – when England play Brazil.”
The new kit was worn for the first time by England Under-21s during a 5-1 win over Azerbaijan on Friday. Liverpool midfielder Harvey Elliott covered the flag by raising the collar of his shirt, but afterwards claimed he was unaware of the controversy and did not even realize there was a flag on the kit.
