Wetherspoons issues statement on fans wearing England shirts in its pubs for World Cup

Football fans in Leeds WILL be able to wear England shirts when watching the World Cup games in Wetherspoons.
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Wetherspoons

This follows rumours that managers will kick punters out for wearing the St George’s cross and that staff have been banned from putting up England flags.

The management team at Becketts Bank have said the rumours are “completely false” and that they welcome any fans wearing their colours.

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However, they will not be putting up the England flags in the Park Row pub.

They said: “There will be no flags up but there's no particular reason for that, we just don’t decorate the pub.”

This statement follows stories circulating online that JD Wetherspoons had banned the display of England flag in all of their 880 pubs.

Instead, pubs have been provided with “World Cup bunting” which includes every flag of each country in the tournament.

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Eddie Gershon, a Wetherspoons spokesman said that football shirts are welcome in its pubs, but that the decision for each pub ultimately comes down to its manager.

He said: "As a pub trade we welcome football supporters. People can wear football shirts, that's no issue whatsoever, what we are also saying is if a manager of a pub has an issue with football shirts for whatever reason, if they want to stop fans wearing football shirts, they would need to have a very good reason for that."

England flags probably won't be flown in most pubs, apart from bunting which shows all 32 teams, due to head office policy which discourages pubs from flying England flags.

Mr Gershon added: "What we have said is the same as Christmas trees and decorations. We have sent this bunting to all our pubs, but staff can't go willy nilly adding anything they want to it.

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"What we aren't looking for is for individual pubs putting extra flags up. So that one pub in Leeds might have a big England flag but another might not. "The bunting is what we want people to put out. If they want them to put up a flag they can but we aren’t encouraging it."

-> Wetherspoons England flags ban: Why pubs are being asked not to hand England flags up for World CupEngland take on Tunisia for their first World Cup match tonight at 7pm.