The latest European Parliament plan which would see our sporting heroes wearing the EU flag has been slammed by East Midlands UKIP MEP Derek Clark.
Mr Clark said the proposals were outrageous and went to show how the EU was running scared of popular opinion.
He said: "I can only take this as the EU running scared. It knows the people of Europe are becoming less and less enthusiastic for the EU. This is a political attempt to bolster confidence.
"This kind of EU promotion has always been less obvious, for example – the provision of diaries for school children to remind them of homework assignments, where on each page they find a pro-EU comment.
"Over the years the EU has drip fed this self-promoting material in an underhand way, now it is coming out in its true colours by trying to persuade sports organisations to fly their wretched flag over events entirely unconnected with the EU."
Mr Clark, who earlier this week spoke out at the initial FIFA ban on placing Poppies on the England football team’s shirts this week, added: "So the EU culture committee suggests the European flag should be flown at major international sport events held on the EU territory and for it to be on athletes’ clothing.
"And it is outrageous this committee actually wants this European flag at the Olympic Games."
The proposals follow a recent ruling in Mr Clark’s constituency when the University of Northampton was fined more than £56,000 for not displaying the EU logo to acknowledge it had received funding from the European Regional Development Fund.
