Chris Sutton has slammed Nike’s ‘playful update’ to the St George’s Cross on the back of England’s shirt for Euro 2024.
The strip, which was launched on Monday ahead of the competition in Germany this summer, promised to ‘celebrate football heroes of the past with a modern twist’.
However, some supporters were left outraged when the kit designer revealed it had replaced the horizontal line on the traditional red cross with a navy blue, light blue and pink one.
Now, It’s All Kicking Off host Chris Sutton has similarly taken issue with the kit design, which he discussed with co-host Ian Ladyman in their latest show.
Ladyman began: ‘One thing that has triggered people in relation to the new England kit this morning is the way the Cross of St George has been positioned and redesigned on the collar.
It’s All Kicking Off host Chris Sutton slammed Nike’s ‘playful update’ to the St George’s Cross on the back of England’s shirt for Euro 2024
The kit designer revealed this week it had replaced the horizonal line on the traditional red cross with a navy blue, light blue and pink one
‘Nike, the kit manufacturers, say on their own website described this as ‘a playful update to the flag of St. George appears on the collar to unite and inspire’. Now, if you’re confused about that, Chris is laughing, if you’re confused by that…
Sutton then interjected to say: ‘It’s such a load of b*****s though isn’t it? To unite and what? Inspire. To unite and inspire by changing a flag? So it’s not the Cross of St George’.
Ladyman retorted: ‘If I can explain it, if you imagine the traditional cross of St. George, a red cross, the design that appears on the rear collar of the England shirt is or has a red vertical strand, as you would expect.
‘But the horizontal strand of the cross is not red, it’s two shades of blue and purple. I know that sounds hard, but there’s images all over the internet already about it. Chris, you have seen it. What are your thoughts?’
His co-host replied: ‘It’s not the Cross of St. George, is it? I do understand that there will be people out there who will say it’s not representative when it’s on an England jersey and shouldn’t represent an England jersey. I do understand that.
‘I’m not gonna get angry about that, but for heaven’s sake, could the FA have not just, you know… explained?
‘Why would you even need to explain the importance of getting the right flag? It isn’t representative of an England jersey. I mean, it’s like, on The Apprentice with Lord Sugar, when they get sent out to do tasks, and it looks like a massive cock-up.
England have unveiled their new kits ahead of this summer’s Euros – with captain Harry Kane seen wearing the home strip
Sutton’s co-host, Ian Ladyman (right), similarly questioned the kit manufacturer’s decision
‘I’m not going to get angry about that. It’s it’s a kit design. But I do understand there will be a lot of people around the country who are going to say it doesn’t represent England and shouldn’t represent England. And that’s it.
Ladyman then chimed back in and said: ‘I think there’ll be two contrasting views out there. One will be that it’s modern, it’s new, it doesn’t matter, it’s still an England shirt, it’s still got three lions on the front, it’s still white.
‘And then there’ll be other view, which is that, well, but if you’re gonna have the Cross of St. George on the England kit, then it kind of needs to look like the Cross of St. George. That will be the alternative view’.
Sutton continued: ‘You’ve got to ask yourself why do it? Why expose yourself to all this noise and all this commentary? Why do it? Why not just have a red, if you want to have the Cross of St George on the kit, just have the Cross of St George’.
Ladyman then said: ‘The FA will have had sign off on this because it’s their kit. There’s no way they’re gonna market a new kit without having eyes on it and without sitting there and talking about it. And this will have been discussed’.
Sutton finished by saying: ‘It’s just dumb. It’s just so dumb. The whole thing is so dumb. Why would they even think about tampering with things?’
Earlier on Thursday, talkSPORT host Simon Jordan similarly questioned the decision by Nike and ripped into the ‘virtue-signalling FA’.
He said: ‘I don’t quite understand why Nike want to have a playful brief on our identity.
‘Is our national identity a joke, is it something we’re ashamed of? I think our national identity is something we should be proud of. I don’t find it offensive, I find it unnecessary.
talkSPORT host Simon Jordan ripped into the colour change for England’s Euro 2024 kit
‘Rather than reclaim it, what we’ll do is put up a meaningless cross that has no value to it and represents nobody’.
‘No other country would allow this to happen, they wouldn’t allow it to be done on their national shirt.
‘This is the same Nike that couldn’t even be bothered to produce Mary Earps shirts. I don’t think we should be taking lessons from Nike on the values of this country.
‘And the FA are absolutely complicit in this. The FA will have their virtue-signalling fingers all over this’.
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