Ahead of the England v Croatia World Cup semi-final game, the National Centre for Domestic Violence have released a poster that draws attention to the disturbing correlation between the increase in domestic abuse incidents when England plays.

The campaign, created in collaboration with the communications agency J Walter Thompson London (JWT), shows a shocking image of a woman with blood pouring out of her nose, in such a way that is reminiscent of the St George’s flag.

The image, which has been titled: ‘If England gets beaten, so will she,' has sparked intense discussion, with Jo Wallace, creative director at JWT, saying: ‘As fans across the world watch each game with trepidation, so too do the partners of some of those fans.

England is currently taking on Croatia in the 2018 World Cup semi-final underway in Russia

‘The lesser-known aspect of football is clearly communicated with this impactful campaign, "The Not-So Beautiful Game."

'The team saw these stats and immediately created this excellent work to help reach and support victims of Domestic Violence during the World Cup when they are in particular danger,' she said.

As reported in The Independent, there have been many studies that prove there is a link between when the England team plays and the number of cases and this is why JWT have also released images that re-imagine flags into domestic violence incidents.

The largest of the studies on this correlation, which was conducted by Lancaster University in 2013, found that abuse increased by a staggering 23 per cent when England played and by a whopping 38 per cent when the team lost.

According to the study’s abstract, results also revealed that ‘a tournament trend was apparent, as reported domestic abuse incidents increased in frequency with each new tournament.’

The conclusion stated that while this study is small, if it was replicated, it would result in ‘significant opportunities to identify and reduce incidents of domestic abuse associated with televised soccer games’.

There have been other studies that have also provided evidence of this link and in 2014, research compiled by the National Centre for Domestic Violence, the National Police Chiefs’ Council and the BBC found that violent incidents rose by 79.3 reports a day when England played.

This figure was compared to the 58.2 reports a day when England was not playing and incidents were 11 per cent higher on a day when the team played, regardless of whether or not they had won or lost the game.

Because of this evidence of the disturbing link, police forces across the UK have been preparing for a rise in domestic violence around the time of England’s World Cup games and the same is thought to happen ahead of the semi-final clash against Croatia.

Study leader Professor Stuart Kirby told The Independent that he conducted the research after reading about a 10 per cent increase in partner violence after shock losses in American Football.

‘There was a lot of anecdotal evidence that domestic abuse rose around high profile football games, however no study was done to see if this was accurate.’

However, this is not the first time that the National Centre for Domestic Violence have launched a campaign to prevent incidents and raise awareness of the despicable correlation between football and abuse.

During the 2014 World Cup, the organisation campaigned on social media after a rise in abuse cases were reported after England lost 2-1 to Italy in the first game of the event. This year, police forces have trained more officers on domestic violence and an increased number will be on duty for the final on June 15.

In addition to this, campaigns such as Give Domestic Abuse the Red Card and Women’s Aid have been collaborating with football clubs and broadcasters in order to even further raise awareness and in turn, reduce sexism.

Katie Ghose, CEO of Women’s Aid, said: ‘Since 2014, our Football United Against Domestic Violence campaign has worked with football clubs, the FA, the Premier League and BT Sport to stand together against domestic abuse and call out the sexist attitudes and behaviour that some fans still exhibit. These damaging attitudes are rife in our society; football is no exception.’

National Domestic Violence Freephone 24 hour helpline: 0808 2000 247