Steven Gerrard caught up in logo spat between Nike and adidas during England World Cup duty

• Steven Gerrard caught up in spat between Nike and adidas
• BBC unveil first ever World Cup panel with Thierry Henry, Rio Ferdinand and Clarence Seedorf
• Jose Mourinho in talks to represent BT Sport as ambassador
• Danny Murphy, like Phil Neville, attracts criticism from fellow BBC staff
  

By Charles Sale for the Daily Mail

Published: 17:56 EST, 19 June 2014 | Updated: 09:52 EST, 20 June 2014

England captain Steven Gerrard is at the centre of the escalating row between Nike and adidas over the leisure kit being worn by the players in Brazil.

Adidas are taking action over the way Nike have been allowed by the FA to deck the England squad in their gear with little or no FA branding, in addition to the official supply items for on and off the pitch.

This has meant Gerrard and the other adidas ambassadors in the England camp - Leighton Baines, Gary Cahill, Luke Shaw, Phil Jagielka, Frank Lampard and Ricky Lambert - being photographed with only Nike logos visible, much to adidas’s considerable annoyance.

VIDEO Scroll down for Sportsmail's Neil Ashton and Charles Sale's England verdict

Adidas have informed the FA and their sponsored players that they will be in breach of contract if they wear any Nike apparel that doesn’t also showcase the Three Lions branding.

The FA, who are revamping their commercial operation, are relaxed about Nike’s ambush  tactics but it puts Gerrard in particular in a tricky position when he wants to concentrate on the football.

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During a World Cup in which the BBC have fielded their first ever all-black panel - Thierry Henry, Rio Ferdinand and Clarence Seedorf - at a major championship as part of a welcome diversity push, the FA parted company with Noel Blake, national coach for seven years and one of the few elite black coaches in the game. The split hasn’t gone unnoticed by the FA inclusion board charged with overseeing the campaign to increase the number of black managers and coaches in the game.

Minister for Sport Helen Grant said in Sao Paulo on Thursday: ‘I do want to see much more done across football.’

Sir Tim Rice, who is far more likely to be seen at Lord’s watching the cricket, saw his first England football away match for 51 years in Manaus. The last time Sir Tim saw England play abroad was in 1963 while he was a student in Paris. He was invited to  England’s World Cup opener after bringing his Lion King show to Sao Paulo.

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Michael Garcia, the New York attorney leading the inquiry into the bidding for the 2018 and 2022 World Cups, has bizarrely been asking about receipts from the 24 Mulberry handbags doled out as gifts by England’s doomed 2018 bid. If Garcia wants to see the bags, all of which were returned, they are still gathering dust in a Wembley cupboard.

BT CALL UP SPECIAL ONE

Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho, who already has ambassador roles with Hublot, Yahoo, Jaguar and the United Nations World Food  Programme, has started talks with BT Sport about representing them as well.

BT see Mourinho as their response to Sky  having David Beckham as their £4m-a-year ambassador, although Jose is expected to be cheaper for BT, who are also making overtures to Sir Alex Ferguson ahead of their Champions League coverage that starts in 2015-16.

Mourinho used to be a Sky ambassador, describing their 2009 football coverage as ‘special’.

Phil Neville is not the only BBC co-commentator who has attracted criticism from inside the Corporation. Danny Murphy’s description of a Chile defender bringing down Spain’s Fernando Torres to preserve the lead as a ‘good foul’ brought immediate disapproval from Jeremy Vine on Twitter.

There is still no plan for how the £180m Manaus stadium will be used after the World Cup, with no club in the region big enough for its 42,000-capacity arena. An Amazon state judge suggested it be turned into a detention centre to ease prison overcrowding. But security isn’t a Brazilian strongpoint, as the mass Chilean fan break-in at the Maracana suggests.

They may fancifully claim that 46million tuned into beIN Sports’ English language coverage of the England v Italy game. But the only way Qatar presenter Richard Keys and his similarly forgotten sidekick Andy Gray can create even a ripple of interest about themselves is to have a go at your  Sports Agenda columnist on their hopeless World Cup Diary video on successive days.