England beat Croatia 4-2 in Dallas on Wednesday night. Harry Kane scored twice. Jude Bellingham and Marcus Rashford helped take the game away from a Croatian side that made the first half uncomfortable before England pulled clear. Thomas Tuchel had his first win as England manager. Back home, the usual mixture of hope and overreaction was well underway.
Nigel Farage posted on X with the message “Proper job.”
He also posted photos of himself in an England shirt, pint in hand, in a pub. This would normally be unremarkable. Politicians attaching themselves to football wins is as reliable as the football itself. But this particular set of photos ran into some trouble.
Critics pointed out almost immediately that the images looked familiar. Not in the general “politician in a pub at a tournament” sense. In the specific, granular sense of same pub, same arrangement of flags, same England shirt, same people standing nearby.
The comparison being made was to pictures Farage had posted during Euro 2024, when England played Denmark. Same location. Same setup. Same clothes. The kind of coincidence that is either extraordinary or isn’t one.
One person put it most entertainingly: “Nigel Farage is such a man of the people that he arranged for everyone he was in the pub with to watch England play Denmark in 2024 to get back together in the same clothes to watch England play Croatia in the 2026 World Cup. What a guy!”
Another was less generous: “A two-year-old photo of you pretending to like football during the Euros. You’re such a fake.”
The Mirror’s deputy political editor Mikey Smith noted the “incredible coincidence” of Farage apparently watching England in the same spot, same pub, same flags, same top, standing next to someone in an identical top, as he had two years earlier.
A Reform source reportedly dismissed the criticism and told Smith to “touch some grass.”
The reason this landed harder than it might for a different politician is not really about football. It is about the act.
Farage has spent years building a political identity around being the authentic voice of ordinary Britain. The pint. The pub. The England shirt. These are not accidental choices. They are carefully maintained images of a man who belongs in these settings in a way that career politicians do not. His whole pitch is that he is not performing.
So when the performance has apparently already been filmed and is being rerun with a new caption, it cuts rather more deeply than it would for, say, a politician who never claimed authenticity was their defining quality.
A Labour source put it in bluntly political terms: “If Farage can’t even be straight with the public on where he watched the football, you’re left to wonder – what else is he hiding?”
That is a political attack line. But it follows naturally from the story, especially at a moment when Farage is already under investigation by the Parliamentary Standards Commissioner over a £5 million gift from businessman Christopher Harborne – a matter he has argued did not need to be declared because he was not an MP at the time.
The replies leaned into the wider picture. “The unmistakable stench of a desperate need for attention.” Another: “Incredible that you managed to be in the same pub with the flags in the exact same place with the same people from the Euros two years ago.”
England play Ghana next before finishing the group against Panama. If the Three Lions keep winning, Farage will likely post again.
This time, people will be checking the flags.
2 responses to “Nigel Farage’s England World Cup post looked strangely familiar, and fans noticed straight away”
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Farage, he’s an Alchemist 😀 that’s why he can be in the multiverse simultaneously 😁 he also helps himself with some green grass from home and of course with a pint of beer 😉 don’t be bad, he’s also O oooM mmm🤔😎👻😄😄🤣😉
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What do you expect from a public school boy trying to con the working class into thinking he is a man of the people when all the time he is in it only for himself. . He is a a liar and a chance. Vote for Reform and say goodbye to the NHS. Look at the USA & What Trump is doing & Farage licks Trumps orange arse.!!
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