By Andrew Warshaw at Old Trafford in Manchester

Joe Allen_26_JulyJuly 26 - It may not be have been as humiliating a gaffe as the North Korea flag incident at Hampden Park in Glasgow 24 hours earlier, but organisers of the Olympic football tournament had more red faces today when the official programme for Team GB listed Welsh midfielder Joe Allen as being English.

Given the constant debate over the rights and wrongs of an all-British team, the mistake (pictured top) could hardly have been more embarrassing.

Allen, 22, is one of five Welshmen in the Team GB squad despite the opposition of the Welsh Football Association which has always feared a combined team could jeopardise its independent status within FIFA.

However, against his name in the programme, the Swansea midfielder, a fluent Welsh speaker and £12 million ($18.8 million/€15.3 million) target for Liverpool, found the words: "Nationality: English".

Although the error came too late to be removed ahead of Team GB's opening game against Senegal  here, London 2012 was quick to issue an apology, saying "new programmes are now being printed with the correction in time for Team GB's next match."

The mistake comes a day after the South Korean flag was mistakenly used alongside the names of the North Korean women's football team, prompting them to briefly walk off.

Reacting to that incident, Paul Deighton, the chief executive of London 2012, told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: "We have apologised and taken steps to make sure that it cannot happen again – it was simple human error."

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