There wasn't any cross on the 2020 kits at all, but having different coloured flags on the kit is hardly a new thing is it?
2024 Home; small red cross on back of neck with a bit of red, purple, and blue in bars in the horizontal line of the cross
2018 Away; massive dark red cross across the front, on a red background
2012 GK Home; entire kit covered in red crosses made up of tiny red squares, on a dark red background
2012 GK Away; entire kit covered in blue crosses made up of tiny blue squares, on a dark blue background
2011 Away; collar covered in light and dark blue crosses, on a light blue background
2011 GK Away; entire kit covered in light and dark green crosses, on a light green background
2006 Home; cross on shoulder with stretched out vertical line
2006 GK Home; same as home kit, but on a deep navy background
2004 Away; white crosses on red background on the shoulders
1998 Away; red crosses on red backgrounds, depicted as actual waving flag shapes in different colour to the flag
The 2012 Team GB had the union flag in all sorts of colours, none of the original colours, stretched right across it by Stella McCartney
And as mentioned by Nike, the 2024 design reflects the training kit from 1966.
Not to mention various years that appear to have included the St Andrew's saltire on them, traditionally associated with Scotland!
Nobody was mentioning any of this in any of those years. It wasn't the slightest bit controversial. Neither was this when the kit first launched... but then Rishi and Keir decided it was, made their little faux-rage addresses to the nation, and a sizable minority swallowed it hook, line & sinker and suddenly foamed at the mouth about the new kit.
It'll be forgotten within the month, the FA will continue to fleece people out of their money for this kit and the next one, and if we had any chance of winning something in it the kit would actually end up becoming universally loved and you'd see that design for years to come in slightly different versions, all dubbed "retro".
We had much worse things to worry about during the pandemic, and arguably still do during a cost of living crisis, than an artistic decision over a piece of cloth about the size of your thumb, that nobody can even see when watching our nation's lackluster performances.
