National League club ‘change their badge’ after FIFA ban

National League Barrow have made a slight alteration to their badge after a group of their fans were denied entry to see England at the World Cup.

The Barrow supporters had an England flag with their club’s badge on it.

Getty

The badge contains a submarine, which is synonymous with the Cumbrian town.

That is because it is known for shipbuilding and submarine construction, and it is one of the main employers in Barrow.

But FIFA state that military items are not allowed on flags, so the supporters were blocked from entering the ground in Dallas.

In response, Barrow released a post on X that shows they’ve blurred out the submarine.

However, there is an arrow that goes through a bee, and they asked FIFA if that was okay.

In the post, they said: “In order to make sure our supporter John Little can represent the Bluebirds over in Boston properly, we’d like to unveil our new *temporary club badge for the duration of the World Cup…

“@FIFAcom let us know if the Arrow has to go too…”

At the end of the post, there was a face palm emoji. The fan in question, Little, spoke to the BBC about not being allowed in.

He said: “I couldn’t believe it really, it’s a little bit harsh that they’ve done it for something like that.

“I could understand like guns and knives and what have you, but not a submarine. People are just saying how ridiculous it is that they’re not allowing the flag.”

Getty

FIFA’s response

Fans who want to display flags at the World Cup need to get prior approval.

So, when Little and his friends submitted the flag, they didn’t think there would be any issues.

But FIFA blocked them from attending the 4-2 win over Croatia in their opening game of the World Cup.

In response, they said they’d reconsider if the submarine could be covered up in some way.

FIFA said: “The application was rejected because the item includes imagery of weapons or military (submarine).

“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.”

Try again

Little and his friends are trying again and hope to get in for England’s game against Ghana on Tuesday, live on talkSPORT.

The Three Lions take on the Black Stars after both sides won their respective tournament openers.

England were struggling at half time against Croatia with Harry Kane bailing Thomas Tuchel‘s side out.

But the second-half performance was electric with Jude Bellingham and Marcus Rashford wrapping up a 4-2 win.

Meanwhile, Ghana huffed and puffed against Panama before grabbing a last-gasp 1-0 win in stoppage time.