zoukla

Just looking at the pregame shows and symbols of African countries and noted the prominence of the "LION" in the crests and merchandise...
Will this be an issue for 2012?

While lions are indigenous to and symbolise Africa and i cannot recall lions being indigenous to England so how did they get on the English crest/Kit?


The more learned amongst us can advise

kittycat1

The lion is part of the royal coat of arms so as long as we have a queen we'll have a lion and a unicorn! Note why the English team is often referred to as the Lions....

The lion symbolizes dauntless courage and the unicorn is virtue and strength. Makes you proud to be British!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coat_of_arms_of_England

StublueKPL

The englsih team is not referred to as the Lions. Thats the british and Irish lions (rugby) and the Unicorn is actually for scotland! At one time the unicorn featured on many scottish coat of arms and when the act of union came about, the almagamation of the lion and the unicorn was seen as the joining of england and scotland.

Bahtatboy

And from pedant's corner, zoukla, UK = England, Scotland, Wales & Northern Island; GB = England, Scotland & Wales.

kittycat1

I stand corrected

zoukla

Me too....

I would think the rose would be more appropriate but then that would show too much of a softer side.
Not much of a sports fan but of all the sports despite living in Scotland and surrounded by every second bloke at Uni playing rugby. Just cannot get the game and still not taken by it...seen too many bloody noses and dentures i guess...

Anyway folks i would just love to know when the Lion (s) became incorporated into the crests coat of arms, Bank of E etc.Not sure reasons for lion hold up but i suppose when i get the dates it will all make sense.

kittycat1

Zoukla, its like a thousand years ago, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_c...United_Kingdom

am pretty sure you could have managed a google search all on your own for that one!

Norm_uk

Except we don't have a British football team do we? We prefer to divide up on old petty squabbles that even our great-great-great grandparents were not affected by (excluding Ireland of course).

I think the new PM should fix this football issue and declare a British football association to create a new league and national team. We'd have more players to draw upon and would hear less of the borderline racism that crops up between the Union nations during the World Cup.

Of course that would make sense and help us all to get on a bit more and realise how much we have in common so it won't happen will it

N.