That does seem pretty obviously political and wilfully provocative, yet Uefa approved it. The intention, said Andriy Pavelko, the head of the Ukrainian football federation, was to “add strength to the players, because they will fight for all Ukraine”. The map on Ukraine’s kit for Euro 2020 includes Crimea, which was annexed by Russia in 2014, and Donbas and Luhansk, where a war is currently being fought. How could you ban a country from showing an image of its outline? But the problem is that maps show borders and borders are often disputed. Notably missing is any reference to a map. So law four goes on to acknowledge that “political” is hard to define, and lists various examples of what would be considered inappropriate: references to people, parties, organisations, groups or governments any organisation which is discriminatory or whose aims or actions are likely to offend a notable number of people and any specific political act or event. But Fifa or Uefa, clearly, cannot legislate against teams wearing colours that have a meaning to them (not everybody can be like Venezuela, who adopted their vinotinto identity after turning up at a tournament in Panama in 1938 and being given burgundy shirts).

Ukraine strip euro 2020