Chris Smalling is mistaken for US President Barack Obama

A hilarious blunder at a company producing World Cup merchandise has seen Barack Obama mistaken for England defender Chris Smalling on a set of World Cup mugs.

The U.S. President is pictured wearing the England football top after a junior member of staff was tasked with finding royalty free images of the Three Lions squad.The head and shoulders photo printed on the mugs show Obama wearing the kit, with the caption 'Chris Smalling World Cup squad Brazil 2014' beneath it.Roy Hodgson's England side crashed out of the Brazil World Cup in the group stages after losing their first two matches by a scoreline to 2-1 to both Italy and Uruguay.It is the Three Lions' earliest World Cup exit since 1958 and, perhaps most humiliatingly, they still have to play Costa Rica in a dead rubber match on Tuesday.The merchandise company which made the error has now hastily turned to Dorset-based expert clearance resellers Wholesale Clearance UK to try and shift the stock that could have easily appeared in an Only Fools and Horses episode.Wholesale Clearance managing director Karl Baxter said the company contacted him with the hope of off-loading the stock.Mr Baxter said he believed a junior member of staff at the Dorset company responsible could be facing demotion after being trusted with the task of sourcing royalty free pictures of each England player to use on the mugs.He said: 'They passed this onto to their young, bright eyed and bushy tailed new apprentice.(dailymail.co.uk)Bakudaily.az