Although we all know England in white, red and occasionally blue (or even grey!) it is very rare to see them in yellow but it has happened on a few occasions, most recently during the 1976 USA Bicentennial Cup where they wore this Admiral outfit. The Bicentennial Cup was a friendly tournament celebrating the anniversary of American Independence and featured England, Brazil, Italy and a Team America side (captained by England legend Bobby Moore and including Pele) in a handful games across the states. This all-yellow England kit was adorned with Admiral logo and England badge but otherwise was a rather plain, and thanks to the very pale yellow, an insipid affair. To be honest, it was a mystery why it was even worn as both England’s kits provided adequate colour options. Whatever the reasons, England have never been seen in yellow since.
Worn in: A 3–1 win over the Team America side – the only time the strip was worn (although the socks did make a reappearance in the game against Brazil). Unlike their Brazilian and Italian counterparts, the English FA treated the match only as a training game and did not award caps.
Worn by: Gerry Francis, who captained England in the match.
THE FOOTBALL KIT HISTORY SITE
I think for many years a yellow shirt was exclusive to the England international goalkeeper so that would deter the option for the team.As things relaxed it would therefore become an option ?
I understand Brazil changed theirs to yellow from white, following their home defeat in the 1950 world cup final.I have been informed also that Brazil bought blue shirts
locally in Sweden for the 1958 final and just sewed the badge on .
Imagine ?
John did you know that the shirt was actually airtex material? And the numbers were a very very dark blue almost black. Yellow or gold was traditionally an international goalkeepers shirt colour for many countries.
Am i right in thinking the other time they wore yellow was 3 times in 1973, an Umbro number?
Oh yeah John forgot to say, it wasn’t England/The FA who didn’t consider it a full international and therefore not award caps, it was a FIFA decision. Team America were not considered an international side and not registered with FIFA, so any games against them were scrubbed from the record books. Same will have applied to both Brazil and Italy, any caps they did award will be wiped from a players records.
Cheers Shakey, I didn’t realise the shirt was Airtex. I wasn’t aware they wore it 3 times.
It was a different one they wore three times, the yellow and blue kit in ’73, against Poland, Italy and someone else