Because there’s no such thing as a stupid question

Thinking about the current World Cup holders, a member of The Spoiler’s staff posed the following question:

Italy’s flag is green, white and red – why do they play in blue?

The answer is actually quite simple – blue is the colour of the House of Savoia, the ruling family in Italy between 1861 and 1946.

During that period, the nation’s flag always had the coat of arms on it (as pictured above). Only when Italy changed from a Kingdom to a republic after World War II did they adopt the tricolor national flag you see today.

Spoiler quizzical bonus: We can think of two other teams who do not play in the colours of their flag – Japan (who play in blue) and Australia (who play in green and yellow). Can you think of any others? Answers on a postcard below, please.