FA chief who approved the controversial changes to the St George’s flag on England’s new home Nike kit left his role LAST YEAR – and is now working for Six Nations Rugby

The FA chief executive, who approved the controversial changes to the England flag on the home shirt to be worn for the first time against Brazil on Saturday, left Wembley last year.

Mail Sport has learned that the new kit deal with Nike was signed by former FA commercial director Navin Singh, who is now Chief Commercial Officer of Six Nations Rugby.

The much-criticized changes to the St George’s Cross introduced by Nike, which have added navy blue, light blue and purple to the traditional red cross, were approved by Singh in the summer of 2022.

They were not made public until the kit went on sale earlier this week, however, prompting a strong backlash, with Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and Leader of the Opposition Keir Starmer both urging the FA to return to using the traditional flag.

Singh left the FA last year after being offered a more senior role by the Six Nations. It is unclear whether FA chief executive Mark Bullingham was made aware of the changes Nike made to the flag before the contract was signed, while current FA commercial director James Gray was not involved at all when he first joined the organization last December.

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The FA defended the new shirt in a statement on Friday, which also pointed out that kit manufacturers have tampered with the flag in the past. A shirt produced by Umbro ahead of Euro 2012 had a multitude of crosses in four different colours, while the goalkeeper shirt from the same season was covered in crosses of different shades of green.

The FA insisted that the new shirt was inspired by the training kit worn by England’s winning team in 1966.

“The new England 2024 home kit features a number of design elements that were intended as a tribute to the 1966 World Cup winning team,” read a statement.

‘The colored trim on the cuffs is inspired by the training kit worn by England’s 1966 heroes and the same colors are also on the design on the back of the collar. It is not the first time that different colored St George’s Cross inspired designs have been used on England shirts.

‘We are very proud of the red and white St. George’s Cross – the English flag. We understand what it means to our fans and how it unites and inspires, and that will be prominently displayed at Wembley tomorrow – as it always is – when England play Brazil.’

The new kit was worn for the first time by England Under-21s in a 5-1 win over Azerbaijan on Friday. Liverpool midfielder Harvey Elliott covered the flag by turning up the collar of his shirt, but afterwards claimed he was unaware of the controversy and didn’t even realize there was a flag on the kit.