Nike ‘wanted England to play in a rainbow-effect kit at Euros’

FA gave all-clear to changing colour of St George’s Cross but did at least halt plan for even more radical redesign

As anger over the multicoloured St George’s Cross on England’s new kit grew too great even for the Prime Minister to ignore yesterday, the blame game began over how Nike managed to “mess with” the national flag.

The answer varies depending on who you talk to about a calamitous own goal almost two years in the making. Telegraph Sport has been told that it was around the summer of 2022 that the American sportswear giant presented the Football Association with proposed designs for the £125 shirts England would wear at this year’s European Championship – the normal such lead-in time for a new strip.

What Nike’s marketing speak portrayed as “a playful update” to the St George’s Cross, but was branded by others as anything from “woke” to an act of cultural vandalism, was present and correct, but there were claims yesterday that at least one senior figure failed to spot the offending emblem before officially approving the kit.

It seems astonishing that the FA would not examine the shirt closely enough, but amid claim and counterclaim yesterday from sources close to those in charge, there were allegations the US firm wanted to make the home kit even more multicoloured and closer to displaying a “rainbow” effect.

It seems that this, at least, was a bridge too far for the FA. One source said the final approval for the strip lay with its commercial director, Navin Singh, who quit last year to become chief commercial officer at Six Nations Rugby.

However, a source close to Singh disputed that he had been solely responsible, before claiming he had personally not even seen the cross at the time. That is despite the source also alleging that Singh had effectively vetoed the “rainbow” proposal from Nike amid fears the FA would be accused of “virtue-signalling”.

Ironically, that is what ended up happening with the multicoloured cross on the back of the shirt collar.

Another source with knowledge of the design process confirmed the addition of another colour had been discussed, but disputed that it would have constituted a “rainbow” effect, stressing that part of the design brief had been incorporating hues harking back to England’s 1966 World Cup triumph.

The FA and Nike declined to comment, and the FA also refused to confirm whether chief executive Mark Bullingham had seen the kit, or the cross, prior to the strip being signed off.

That was after Mark Palios, who was FA chief executive between 2003 and 2004, told Telegraph Sport he would have been able to veto any England strip designs when he was in charge.

“In my day, it was presented to me,” he said. “But I would have already taken the steer from the team that were involved around the whole issue of the kit. I wouldn’t necessarily have interfered in it.”

The new England kit would have been signed

off shortly before captain Harry Kane began wearing the “One Love” rainbow armband in support of the LGBTQ+ community in the build-up to the 2022 World Cup.

Fifa ultimately blocked Kane from donning it during the tournament in Qatar amid a major row over such colours being displayed in the majority Muslim country. It has been denied that the purple and blue colours at the centre of the St George’s Cross saga had any connection with the “One Love” armband.

Whatever the real inspiration behind the cross, the redesign has snowballed into a PR disaster.

Like many such calamities, this one began on social media, when Nike “dropped” images of the strip on its X account on Monday, stating: “A playful update to the St George appears on the collar to unite and inspire.”

It took another two days for the backlash to reach critical mass, with Right-wing politicians leading the charge against the “virtue-signalling woke nonsense”. Then, on Thursday, Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer joined the fray, backing calls for the kit to be scrapped.

Nike’s doubling down on the design and the FA’s refusal to have the kit recalled merely compounded supporter anger and, by yesterday, Rishi Sunak was proclaiming the St George Cross should not be “messed with”.

England legend Peter Shilton warned the move opened the door to other colour changes, while fellow goalkeeping great David Seaman asked: “What’s next? Are they going to change the Three Lions to three cats?”

Harvey Elliott became the first player not to display the controversial cross, by wearing his collar up in the country’s European Under-21 Championship win in Azerbaijan – apparently, unwittingly so.

That was as the FA and Nike were scrambling to draw up statements. Nike claimed it understood “the significance and importance of the St George’s Cross” and that “it was never our intention to offend”. But the damage had already been done.