England Fans Face FIFA's Flag Controversy Over Submarine Imagery
The World Cup has barely started and already a flag has caused a row – not over politics, not over provocation, but over a submarine.
A group of England fans from Barrow, proud of their Cumbrian roots and their club, thought they were bringing a slice of home with them. Their St George’s flag carried the Barrow badge and a silhouette of a submarine, a nod to the town’s long association with shipbuilding and naval vessels.
Instead, they ran straight into FIFA’s regulations.
When the supporters applied for permission to display the flag inside World Cup stadiums – a requirement for all fans who want banners in the ground – the response came back bluntly: rejected. The reason? The submarine counted as “imagery of weapons or military”.
FIFA, contacted for comment, pointed the group to its policy banning weapons or military images on items displayed in stadiums. The submarine, they said, fell on the wrong side of that line.
For Barrow fan John Little, it was a decision that jarred.
He described the ruling as “harsh” and struggled to see how a submarine on a flag could be treated in the same bracket as more overtly aggressive symbols.
“It’s not like you can go down to the local Walmart and buy a submarine is it,” he said, summing up the bemusement among the group.
Little, who is travelling to Boston for England’s match against Ghana on Tuesday, admitted he was stunned when the rejection landed.
“I couldn’t believe it really, it’s a little bit harsh that they’ve done it for something like that,” he said. “I could understand like guns and knives and what have you, but not a submarine.”
That distinction – between obvious weaponry and something that, in Barrow, is as much civic emblem as military machine – is at the heart of the frustration. For the fans, the submarine is identity, industry, history. For FIFA, it is still military hardware.
The reaction among supporters, Little added, has been scathing.
“People are just saying how ridiculous it is that they’re not allowing the flag,” he said.
FIFA did at least leave the door ajar. In correspondence seen by the BBC, the governing body told the group the flag could be approved if the submarine was removed or obscured.
“The application was rejected because the item includes imagery of weapons or military (submarine),” FIFA’s response read. “These are not permitted under FIFA policy. We would be happy to approve, if you were willing and able to submit again with the imagery covered up.”
So the Barrow fans now face a choice: head to the World Cup with a doctored version of their flag, or leave a piece of their town’s story behind.
They plan to try again, covering the submarine and resubmitting the application, hoping that a slightly altered St George’s cross will still carry enough of Barrow’s spirit into the stands.
The World Cup is meant to be a parade of colours, crests and local pride. For one small pocket of England support, that pride has just been told to stay beneath the surface.
