[0762]

Ha ha ha! I also wonder how many footie fans who attend this match are really that interested in this 'storm in a teacup' rather than the outcome at the end of the game

[hibeejim21]

I just picked up a giant poppy at BNQ today for 6 quid...doubles as a birdhouse.

And a poppy pizza from Asda,double crust to commemorate those that died in the trenches.

RESPECT

[0762]

It's no wonder that lotsa people are reverting to wearing white peace poppies and yet this practise still draws criticism from some traditionalist morons in our society who try to force home an insinuation that it's 'incorrect' - I recently listened to some of this nonsense on the radio when it seemed to be forgotten it's all down to a personal choice and respect anyway!

[hibeejim21]

Imagine if Serbia, Bosnia, Croatia, China, Japan, USA, Sudan, Libya, Saudi Arabia, Iran, Iraq, Ireland, Germany, Argentina etc etc etc all opted to commemorate their war dead on their strips. International football would become a quagmire ffs.

FIFAs stance is probably the right one,but as usual they have made an erse of it.

[Lord Snooty]

It looks like FIFA didn't even know about ROI having the Easter Rising emblem on their shirts. That happened in March and now they've opened disciplinary proceedings.
If England and Scotland had just gone ahead and not even mentioned the poppies, nothing more would've been said.

[0762]

Aye LS! Just 'act ignorant' and unaware on the issue and right enough, poss get away with it, but we forgot about our rotten press who would've likely 'dropped us in it'.

[Lord Snooty]

Having now seen the Irish one, it's just numbers. Could mean anything.

[WakeyTerrier]

It's no big deal, just a couple of newspapers blowing everything out of proportion.
There are ways around it, instead of having the England flag held up behind the goals they should had out a clapper/plastic sheet to every seat in the ground to make a Poppy design all away around. They could wear training tops with the poppy on, they will all observe a minutes silence and then after that the fun and games will begin

[Lord Snooty]

As for saying they can't have anything political or religious on the shirts,  does that include flags? There's nothing more political than a country's flag.

[0762]

I would just change the political insinuation to a patriotic one. I think the poppy symbol has been attached to an element of patriotism and association with heroic war events by certain people in this country. It was never intended to move away from the dignified position of respecting our war dead and thankfully the majority of people still acknowledge the sombre nature of the event and no 'beating of drums' and no praise for the whole concept of major warfare in which there are no winners or losers from many a veteran soldier's point of view.