Gareth Southgate on Friday night insisted the controversial logo on the collar of the new England shirt is not a St George’s flag, claiming it is merely a ‘quirky design feature’.

The national team head coach, who described himself as a huge patriot, fell short of criticising the Football Association and Nike for the multi-coloured flag, which is described as a homage to the training kit worn by the squad that won the World Cup in 1966, when he spoke for the first time on the furore that has overshadowed tonight’s friendly against Brazil.

‘I think they can put a quirky design together but you can’t say it’s the flag of St George because it isn’t. It’s therefore something else,’ explained Southgate.

‘The most important thing on the England shirt is the Three Lions. That is the thing that is iconic, that differentiates us even from the England rugby team or the England cricket team.’

Southgate, who also ruled out talking to any club while still manager of England, after being linked to Manchester United, added: ‘I am a huge patriot. I believe we should celebrate St George’s Day more than we do. But the bit I understand is people don’t think we should have changed the flag of St George.

Gareth Southgate on Friday night insisted the controversial logo on the collar of the new England shirt is not a St George’s flag, claiming it is merely a ‘quirky design feature’

Southgate, who described himself as a huge patriot, fell short of criticising the FA and Nike for the multi-coloured flag (pictured above)  

Harvey Elliott’s collar was up for the entire game in Baku – the shirt’s first ever outing in international football with the senior playing in it tomorrow at Wembley

If it’s changed then it isn’t the flag of St George! So I’m a little bit lost with that element of it.’ 

An FA spokesperson said: ‘The new England 2024 Home kit has a number of design elements which were meant as a tribute to the 1966 World Cup winning team.

‘The coloured trim on the cuffs is inspired by the training gear worn by England’s 1966 heroes, and the same colours also feature on the design on the back of the collar.

‘It is not the first time that different coloured 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 England flag. We understand what it means to our fans, and how it unites and inspires, and it will be displayed prominently at Wembley tomorrow – as it always is – when England play Brazil.’

Nike said in statement that ‘it was never our intention to offend’ and that the ‘intention was to celebrate the heroes of 1966 and their achievements’.

It came as one of England’s young stars turned up the collar of the new ‘woke’ Nike shirt yesterday – its first official outing in an international match – hiding the controversial blue and purple St George’s Cross.

Liverpool’s Harvey Elliott, 20, scored twice in the young Three Lions’ 5-1 win over Azerbaijan in a Euro under-21 qualifier in Baku – but the flag on his £125 jersey could not be seen for the entire game.

Nike launched England’s new home and away kits earlier this week – but they’ve been criticised

The kit, modelled hear by Harry Kane, was released ahead of England’s Euro 2024 campaign

Harvey has not commented but Liverpool don’t have a collar on their famous red shirts, however, when the Surrey-born attacking midfielder played on loan for Blackburn Rovers in the Championship he kept his collar down.

The FA executive who approved the controversial changes to the England flag on the home shirt left Wembley last year.

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

The much-criticised changes to the St George’s Cross introduced by Nike, who have added navy, 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 was put on sale earlier this week however, provoking a strong backlash, with Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and leader of the Opposition Keir Starmer both calling for the FA to revert to using the traditional flag. 

The shirt features an altered design of the St George’s cross, which has a red, navy blue and purple design

Reform UK MP Lee Anderson is another who has blasted the new shirt design, claiming: ‘Woke nonsense must stop’

Starmer said: ‘The flag’s unifying, it doesn’t need to change. We just need to be proud of it. So I think they should just reconsider this and change it back.’

Reform UK MP Lee Anderson blasted the move and told the Daily Express: ‘The Left have a nerve to ask me why I want my country back. This virtue-signalling, namby-pamby, pearl-clutching, woke nonsense must stop.’

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