A BRITISH COMPANY was left red-faced after mistaking US president Barack Obama for England defender Chris Smalling on a set of cups intended to be World Cup merchandise.

The unnamed company had intended to produce mugs with the photos of England’s players but on several of the mugs, there is a picture of Obama wearing the England football top. The caption underneath the Obama image read ‘Chris Smalling World Cup squad Brazil 2014‘.

The company then turned to Wholesale Clearance to offload the stock after realising its mistake. The company’s managing director Karl Baxter told the Daily Mail: “They immediately contacted us and 2,000 of the England items were dispatched to our warehouse. We eagerly unpacked them and, indeed it turned out that the Chris Smalling cup had Barack Obama’s head on instead of Chris.”

Baxter also said he believed the mistake happened after a junior staff member was given the task of finding royalty free images of the squad. Now Wholesale Clearance wants to sell the mugs for £2,000. (Rest of Story HERE)