The politic debate behind the new Spanish shirt

adidas unveiled on Monday the new kit that Spain will wear at next summer's World Cup provoking an unexpected and big political debate. The new shirt is based on the jersey worn by Spain at the 1994 World Cup with yellow and blue flashes down the side of the red top. The controversy has sparked because of the colorway of the jersey: it has the colors red, yellow and blue, but some say that from afar the blue appears to have the same purple tone of the Second Republican flag used from 1931-39, banned by Francisco Franco until 1977 and still used as a symbol by those who oppose the monarchy in Spain.

The new design might not have caused such a furor but in the current climate sensitivities are heightened as Catalonia's unilateral declaration of independence from the rest of Spain threatens to break up the country. La Roja was under a lot of pressions especially due to the behavior of Gerard Piqué that officially supports the Catalan request of independence and was asked by the supporters to leave the squad.

Nonetheless, the question has a national relevance in Spain, at the point that adidas and the National Team canceled the today's presentation event. The president of Spain's Football Association Juan Luis Larrea had to defend the kit on Monday saying: 'It's definitely blue, we have even tried it in the rain and it stays blue.' Also Pablo Iglesias - one of the most followed lefty politician and leader of Podemos - tweeted about the shirts with an ambiguous opinion. Some Spanish Twitter users are also proposing to boycott the shirt that does not respect the King and the Constitution.

Adidas and the Spanish federation released a statement on Tuesday evening stating that the design was 'free of any political connotation'.

The design of the shirt summarizes the courage and fury of our team, with red, yellow and blue diamond graphics, which represent the best qualities of this team: speed, energy and its well-known style of play. The development of the jersey is a long process of collaboration between Adidas and Spain, which starts up to 18 months before the tournament. Both entities decide on the model, design and colors that the team will wear.