THE SYMBOLISM OF FLAGS, NATIONAL COLOURS AND THE GAME OF FOOTBALL

Story by Patrick Kamanga (pgkamanga73@gmail.com)

SYMBOLISM OF FLAGS, NATIONAL COLOURS AND THE GAME OF FOOTBALL

There is no question as to the endearing power and allure of football.

From its humble working class origins, the “beautiful game” has grown into a unifying force among the earth’s 7 billion plus inhabitants, more popular than any one religion.

During the World Cup football jamboree every four years, national anthems for participating nations are played prior to the commencement of any matches.

Another interesting feature is the diverse flags and the obvious fervor and national pride displayed by the fans.

Some of the flags have similar designs but it’s their symbolism and origin that is both fascinating and intriguing.

The Netherlands national team which has taken Brazil 2014 by storm has traditionally wore a bright orange kit, is famously known as The Oranje.

Orange is the historical national colour of the Netherlands. This tradition originated from the coat of arms of the Dutch founding father and ancestor of the monarchy of the Netherlands, William of the Orange-Nassau. He led the Dutch revolt against the Spanish in the Eighty Years’ War that culminated in Dutch independence in 1648.

The Orange colour however does not appear on the Dutch national flag.

The Dutch flag is a horizontal tricolour of red, white and blue and is the oldest tricolour design having been in use since 1572.

The Dutch Flag

The Dutch Flag has a similar colour scheme and design to and is often confused for the French flag which consists of vertical tricoloured bands of blue, white and red.

The French Flag

The colours of the French flag draw their origin from the Paris Militia whose members wore tricoloured ribbons borrowed from the city’s traditional colours on their cockades and played a prominent role in the storming of the Bastille in 1789.

The Bastille incident was the flashpoint for the French revolution that eventually brought down the French Monarchy, establishing foundations for the modern French Republic.

The French national team is popularly known as the Le Blue and one feature that is prominent on their kit is the emblem of a Rooster on the jersey. 

The significance of the “Gallic Rooster” dates back to the middle ages and became the symbol of France as a Catholic State with the rooster as a popular Christian image on weathercocks. Its origins are attributed to the interplay of the Latin word Gallus meaning inhabitants of Gaul (ancient France) and gallus meaning rooster. 
The Rooster, popularized by French Kings became symbolic in the religious sense due to the biblical story of Jesus’ arrest by the Romans where prior to being arrested, Jesus predicted that one of his disciples Peter would deny him three times before the rooster crowed on the following morning. At the rooster's crowing, Peter remembered Jesus's words. 
Its that crowing and every roosters' at the dawning of each new morning thus made it a symbol of the daily victory of light over darkness and the triumph of good over evil.

Gallic Rooster adapted as symbol of French football since 1909

Another set of flags that have uncanny similarities are the Mexican and Italian flags. Both feature equally sized green, white and red vertical tricolour design. 
The Mexican national team is popularly called the El Tri, deriving its name from the tricolour of the Mexican flag.

The Mexican Flag

What distinguishes the Mexican flag however is the very unique coat of arms which has the image of an eagle, holding a serpent in its beak and talon, perched on top of a prickly pear cactus growing out of rocks in the middle of a lake.

The Mexican Coat of Arms is based on an Aztec legend. 
The Aztecs, who were the original inhabitants of Mexico also known as the Mexica were a nomadic people who traveled from the north of the country and formed the Great Aztec Empire. Their leader was informed in a dream and instructed by the supreme deity and god of war, Huitzilopochtli, that they were to settle in the place where they would find an eagle on a prickly pear cactus holding a serpent. 
After years of wandering, the myth goes; they finally found the eagle eating a snake on a prickly-pear cactus but at a very inhospitable environment, a swampy island in the center of Lake Texcoco and two other lakes.
Believing it to be divine instruction, they subsequently settled and built the great city of Tenochtitlan in 1345. It served as the most important Aztec city until it was destroyed by the invading Spanish Conquistados in 1521. Modern day Mexico City is built on the ruins of this ancient metropolis.

Historically the Aztec Empire was among the several great civilizations that existed in Central and South America prior to the Spanish conquest.

The Italian flag is a vertical tricolour scheme of green, white and red colours. It has been in use sinse 1946 after the fall of the Fascist regime during the Second World War.

Italian Flag

It draws its origin from the Kingdom of Italy whose tricolour flag, with the armorial bearings that belonged to the former Royal House of Savoy. This royal house unified Italy from 1861 and went on to rule for 85 years until the birth of the Italian Republic in 1946.

Flag of Kingdom of Italy

The use of blue or “Azurri" in Italian is therefore historically rooted to the Royal House of Savoy. Modern Italian sport has kept with this tradition and is from this that the Italian national football team is named as well as the choice of the colour for their uniform. 

Insignia of Italian Football team

The similarities of the Argentine and Uruguayan flags is testament to their historical origins and geographic location. 

The Argentine Flag

Geographically, the capitals of Buenos Aires and Montevideo are in fact separated by a unique physical feature called the The River Plate estuary. It forms the confluence of two major rivers, the Parana and the Uruguay Rivers partly forming the border between these two nations. The estuary is a funnel-shaped indentation on the southeastern coastline of South America about 290 kilometres (180 mi) long.

The Flag of Uruguay

Coincidentally two of the biggest football clubs in both countries share the name, River Plate Football Club, derived from this physical feature.

Historically, both Argentina and Uruguay were part of The Viceroyalty of the Río de la Plata, which was the last and most short-lived Viceroyalty of the Spanish Empire in the Americas. The Viceroyalty was established in 1776 and covered Argentina, Uruguay, Paraguay, and Bolivia.
 

The Uruguayan national team is called the Celeste meaning the sky-blue, while their Argentine neighbours are called the Albiceleste which translates to the sky blue and white respectively.

The Flag of Cote D' Ivore

Though not participating at this year’s finals, the flag of the Republic of Ireland is almost identical to the Cote D’ Ivore’s flag save for the reverse arrangement of the colours.

An interesting incident occurred in the City of Belfast, the capital of Northern Ireland recently where a sports memorabilia shop reportedly draped its windows with flags from all 32 participating nations at the World cup. Drawing to mind the traditional hostilities that have existed between the predominant Catholic Irish Republic and their mainly Protestant brethren to the North, "Unionist" residents mistook the Ivorian flag for that of the Republic of Ireland with nationalistic fervor and tempers almost flaring, clarification was required to sort out the snafu.

Flag of the Republic of Ireland

The Ivorian flag was modeled after the tricolour arrangement of the French flag with the Orange colour representing the country’s fertile northern region. The orange colour of the Irish flag however represents the followers of William of Orange in Ireland.

Flag of Ghana

 

The Ivorian national team, the Elephants preferred home kit is orange while green is usually their away colour.

The flags of two other participating West African countries of Cameroon and Ghana have similar colour scheme of red, green and yellow. They differ with the arrangement of the colours with Ghana’s flag having a horizontal tricolour arrangement and a black star at the center while Cameroon’s is vertical similar to France’s with a yellow star at the center. 

The Ghanaian national football team is christened the Black Stars, a name borrowed from the star at the center of the nation’s flag.

Australia was colonized by British settlers hence the inclusion of the British Union Jack on its flag’s design. Their national football team does not wear colours conforming to their flag.

Flag of Australia

Green and gold are the traditional team colours of all Australian national sporting teams, their football team, the Socceroos included; and was chosen because they are the dominant colours of Australia’s national flower, the Acacia Pycnantha or the Golden Wattle. These colours were proclaimed in 1984 on advice from the then Prime Minister Bob Hawk.

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland uses the Union Jack as its flag but England as one of the constituent countries uses a different flag. 
The Flag of England consists of a red cross on a white background, called the St. George’s Cross. The cross was associated with Saint George since the time of the “Crusades”.

St. George became a very popular warrior saint on the third crusade, 1189-1192, in which European leaders attempted to re-conquer the Christian holy lands from Saladin.

The Flag of England, the Cross of St. George

The colour scheme is the basis for the red and white kit worn by England’s national team, the Three Lions.

Switzerland's flag was adapted from the “War flag” of the Holy Roman Empire. The Holy Roman Empire was neither "Holy" nor "Roman" but a vast multi-ethnic and complex conglomeration of territories in central Europe that developed during the Middle Ages and continued until the Empire's dissolution in 1806. The core and largest territory of the empire was the Kingdom of Germany, though it included at times the Kingdom of Italy.

Flag of Switzerland

The colours red and white were significant and were used by the Holy Roman Empire which part took in the regilious crusades, as a war flag and was flown alongside the black-gold of the imperial banner. This flag was inspired by the St George cross.

 

The design of the Swiss flag is also the basis for the symbol of the International Committee of the Red Cross which is based in Geneva. According to the ICRC the design was derived from the Swiss flag by reversing of the colours, in order to honor Switzerland, where the first Geneva Convention was held.

Flag of the Holy Roman Empire

The Flag of the German Republic

Flag of the German State of Prussia

Insignia of German national football team Nationalmannschaft

The German flag’s black, gold and a black eagle were derived from colours of flag of the Holy Roman Empire with the black eagle featured in the imperial banner. Germany's national team, the Nationalmannschaft primarily uses white and black as the colours for the national football team. Like Italy, Germany draws the use of these colours from its history. They are borrowed from the black and white flag of the northern German State of Prussia which was part of the defunct Kingdom of Germany until its dissolution in 1918.

Flag of Belgium

Belgium’s flag has a vertical tricolour, which came into effect after the Belgium revolution of 1830 that was an uprising against imperial occupation by Austria. With the French speaking popution of Wallonia at the helm, the vertical tricolour was an adaptation of the French flag’s design. The choice of colours was adapted from the Holy Roman Empire similar to Germany.

Flag of Brazil

The Selecao who are host's for this years' World cup, derive their bright yellow, blue, green and white colours of their kit from their national flag.

The Brazilian flag is a blue disc depicting a starry sky spanned by a curved band inscribed with the national motto, within a yellow rhombus, on a green field.

This flag was officially adopted as the national flag in 1889 as the modern Brazilian nation forged its own destiny and identity away from its predecessor, the Portuguese Empire. The motto “Ordem e Progresso” meaning “Order and Progress” was inspired by the great French Philosopher and father of the doctrine of Positivism, Auguste Comte’s motto “Love as a principle, Order as the basis, and Progress as the Goal.

Comte’s philosophy was an attempt to remedy the social malaise of the French Revolution, and was a major influence on the 19^th century thought, inspiring the works of great social thinkers such as Karl Marx among others.

Despite mankind's’ many superficial differences, these flags and many others clearly depict by their symbolism how common and inter related our histories and destinies are. The World cup football tournament therefore celebrates as well as embraces our diversity which enables us forget our many differences, albeit for a month!

Information and photos sourced from Wikipedia and history.com