Row Rumbles On Plus A Ross Barkley Point

Yesterday, with the Premier League programme on hold, courtesy of the international break, I took the opportunity to write two England based articles.

The first of which covered the release of the new kit – a-bit-of-a-furor – and the second of which covered the failure to include Ross Barkley in the current squad – that-big-club-bias – both were better received than I initially expected.

But returning to the first article and following its publication, it appears that the furor just rumbled on and on with both Rishi Sunak and Sir Kier Starmer airing their views, once again dragging sport into the political limelight, something I have always been against.

Interestingly, opinion was somewhat divided when it came to the comments left by those that read the article, some were dead against the alteration of the standard St George’s Cross on the shirt whilst others simply took great pleasure in stating it was just a football shirt and people were reacting too far over the top.

However, the row continues to rumble on and when Gareth Southgate was asked for his views, at the press conference ahead of the game against Brazil today, he somewhat side-stepped the argument by remarking, as reported by the BBC,

“The most important thing that has to be on an England shirt are the Three Lions. It’s our iconic symbol.

“It is what distinguishes us not only from other football teams around the world but England rugby and cricket.”

But, to his credit he did add:

“What you’re really asking is, ‘Should we be tampering with the cross of St George?’.

“In my head, if it’s not a red cross on a white background then it isn’t the cross of St George anyway. It’s presumably some artistic take which I’m not creative enough to understand.”

With the row rumbling on it was interesting to note that in the U21 fixture, against Azerbaijan yesterday, the Liverpool player, Harvey Elliott, as can be seen in the social media post below:

Elliot had his collar hiding the St George’s flag

Read more: https://t.co/accrcPTjR9 pic.twitter.com/N12d594Y05

— FootballJOE (@FootballJOE) March 22, 2024

turned his collar up to hide the badge in question but was this just a temporary measure or one he continued with during his time on the pitch?

Can anyone confirm?

Moving on to the second article from yesterday, the omission of Ross Barkley from the latest England squad, one comment that was posted, from Mike Grice, caught my eye: