SPAIN'S new national football team strip has caused a mixture of outrage and applause – because it looks like an apology for the Republican movement.
Adidas, who created the shirts, added royal blue to the yellow edging which, along with the main red colour, looks from a distance like the Republican flag.
Between 1931 when the King was ousted, and the end of the Civil War when Franco's nationalists won and the 34-year dictatorship started, Spain's flag was red, yellow and bright purple.
Once the Second Republic ended in 1975 with King Juan Carlos I's coronation, the flag returned to its usual red with a yellow centre stripe and Spanish coat of arms.
Now, anti-Monarchy protesters tend to wave these tri-colour flags, calling for a Third Republic.
As well as being an unpleasant snub for King Felipe, Queen Letizia and the rest of the Royal family, the Republican flag is almost as upsetting for those who lived through the Civil War or are still searching for vanished relatives as a swastika would be for anyone who lived through World War II.
Although the Royal Spanish Football Federation (RFEF) – along with Adidas – denied any political message being hidden in the national team colours, the RFEF has since cancelled the official presentation of the strip because of the controversy it has caused.
Adidas says the blue element is a homage to the World Cup of 1994.
Unless anything changes, Spain will be wearing this uniform for the World Cup in Russia next year.
But it is unlikely to please fans – already, comments on Twitter have included hopes of 'The Reds', or La Roja, crashing out in the first round, calling the strip 'insulting'.
Other fans who support the anti-Monarchy message champion the colours, or have perhaps hijacked them for their cause, given Adidas' and the RFEF's apolitical approach.
Leader of left-wing independent party Podemos – Spain's third-largest political force – Pablo Iglesias says the 'purple' is 'beautiful' and a sign of 'Spain's democratic rebellion'.
Iglesias, who is against Catalunya's independence but in support of a legal referendum which, he says, would most likely end in a 'no' vote rather than the current stance which is simply fuelling the separatist movement, nevertheless backs the idea of Spain becoming a Republic.
At the age of 38, born when Spain was already a democracy again, older residents argue that his views would have been different if he had experienced the transition from dictatorship, to which the country owes a great deal to the now-abdicated King Juan Carlos.
Iglesias also predicts an 'oppressive' response from Spain's rulebook-loving PP government.
“In 2017, a paranoid and corrupt right-wing government will end up banning colours they don't like,” he wrote on Twitter.
SPAIN'S last-minute win against England in the 2024 UEFA Euros comes on the 60th anniversary of the country's first-ever title in the much-followed competition – and has broken numerous records, too.
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