So it’s the International break, and England have been beaten for the first time in 21 games at Wembley and the first time since 1995 by Brazil.
Usually, this would anger any England fan, but let’s face it—it was a snooze fest. This time, the anger started before the fixture when England’s new kit was revealed. Nike has taken it upon themselves to make an art piece out of the national flag, which has been met with criticism ranging from fair to outright tinfoil hat-worthy.
I think you shouldn’t make a statement with any country’s flag, and being an Englishman myself, I wasn’t too pleased with the changes. Many shared that opinion.
However, some of the more vocal critics (One being an ex-footballer who has had a few stints in prison) have likened it to the Bi-sexual flag or that it’s linked to, and I quote, “Part of the Lesbian England Women’s Team agenda’ (Who writes that on a public platform?). Where do they find these people?
So yes, we can be annoyed that Nike has done a publicity stunt out of our national flag on a team’s kit that drives us all insane come tournament time. However, they are doing the same as the Conservative and Brexit parties, both of whom have changed the national flag for their branding and are making the most noise now.
We should all avoid getting bogged down in some of the nonsense quoted above; football is the beautiful game where racism and homophobia belong in the bin and not on the pitch. Let’s face it: England has had much worse kits over the years and will probably have more. Let’s not start on some of the awful premier league kits, like my team’s early 2000s cigarette packet looking away kit, which was truly horrible.
