BRITISH TEAMS FORCED TO WEAR EU FLAGS
Sport events may have to fly both EU and British flag
Thursday July 14,2011
By Alison Little Deputy Political Editor
Have your say(2)
BRITISH sports stars could be forced to wear the EU flag on their kit in the latest bid by Brussels to impose its symbols on the UK.
The move would affect all our national teams including football, rugby, cricket and the British Olympic team.
The EU’s blue and yellow flag would also have to be flown at major sporting events, such as the FA Cup Final, the Ashes series, Wimbledon and the British Grand Prix.
The European Parliament will today debate the idea and if, as expected, MEPs give their backing it will go before the European Commission to draft formal proposals.
However, the move sparked outrage last night. Ukip deputy leader and sports spokesman Paul Nuttall said: “It is a
complete and utter joke. Ukip will do everything it can to scupper this
ridiculous idea for the sake of sports fans and our national identity.
“Potentially
this would affect all our national teams, including football, rugby and
cricket. Can you imagine Steven Gerrard playing for England with three
lions on one side of his shirt and the EU logo on the other?
 It is a complete and utter joke  |
Ukip deputy leader and sports spokesman Paul Nuttall |
“This gives you a real insight into the minds of the EU and how they want to interfere in every area of our lives.”
Tory
MP Tracey Crouch, who is a qualified FA coach, said: “It’s outrageous.
It’s an affront to our national teams – and I can’t see how it would
work anyway.”
Former England football manager
Graham Taylor said: “When competing European nations play against each
other it seems pointless to have the European flag on both teams shirts.
“Why would sides want the European flag on all the competing individuals?
“It seems a bit daft. I just don’t see why anyone would want to bring it in. It’s a non-starter for me.”
The
disclosure comes just a day after the Daily Express revealed that the
EU is to challenge the Government’s decision to refuse European
immigrants a full state pension when they have never worked here.
And
it will add to the growing disquiet over Brussels’ insatiable desire to
intrude into cherished areas of national life, prompting a surge of
support for this paper’s crusade to get Britain out of the EU.
The
move to force Britain’s sporting heroes to wear the EU symbol alongside
their national emblems has been made possible after the Lisbon Treaty
gave the EU power over sport for the first time.
The
idea is spelt out in a draft motion on the agenda for today’s meeting
of the European Parliament’s culture and education committee.
Under
the heading European Identity Through Sport, it proposes “that the
European flag should be flown at major sports events held on EU
territory and suggests that it should be displayed on the clothing of
athletes from member states”.
But leading Tory MP Peter Bone said: “This is the sort of nonsense that makes British people throw up at the thought of the EU.
“The
idea that, for example, our Olympic athletes should wear the European
logo next year is so unbelievable that it could only be thought up in
the EU.
“What it clearly shows is how the people
in Brussels see Europe as a country, not as a collection of individual
sovereign states.
“Perhaps even more than all
the money we are wasting on the EU and the surrender of sovereignty, if
you put it to the people that the England football team would be wearing
the European flag, they’d be absolutely incensed.
“If it wasn’t so sad, it would be funny.’”
It
is not yet known how much progress the proposal will make in Brussels
but there were indications last night that the UK government will oppose
the idea.
A Whitehall source said the UK
position would be that it was for sports governing bodies, competition
organisers and clubs to decide what flags were displayed on clothing or
flown at sporting events.
Brussels already has the power to fine organisations in certain circumstances for not flying the EU flag.
Recently
it emerged that the University of Northampton was fined more than
£56,000 for not displaying the EU logo to acknowledge it had received
funding from the European Regional Development Fund.
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