I didn’t want my first post for a while to be so negative but my jaw dropped when I saw photos of the Scotland vs Sweden game tonight. In case you weren’t aware Scotland have just launched their (rather smart) new yellow away shirt which they wore in tonight’s game. Nothing normally wrong with that except that Sweden, who I may remind you were at home, play in yellow and were therefore forced to wear their away kit to prevent a clash.
Don’t get me wrong, I am well aware of the commercial pressures of replica sales and the important income they bring to club and country but I am appalled that the Scotland team wore their new kit in these circumstances when a) there was no colour clash and b) the team they were playing wear the very colour of their new away kit!!! I’m sure the Swedish FA agreed to it but I just don’t understand it.
The last time the SFA pulled a similar stunt was to launch the ill-fated Diadora red third strip a few years ago in a WC match against Georgia which Scotland embarassingly lost. The result this time? 3-0 to Sweden. Coincidence?
What are the lessons to be learnt? Well, if you’re going to launch a new away kit and want to arrange a match to promote it, pick a team whose kit will make a change strip necessary or at least doesn’t clash with the kit you’re trying to promote, and secondly (and more importantly) ALWAYS wear your home colours whenever possible and therefore maintain the integrity of your national football identity.
Sorry…rant over.
Couldnt agree more! Well said…
England have been doing this for years, the new red kit was worn for the first time against the Egyptians, who had to wear a white 2008 kit instead of the rather smart one they won the 2010 African cup of nations in and for some reason, their gold second shirt.
On the Scotland kit, I think it might have been from both sides, as the Swedes wear yellow, and dont get the chance to wear an away kit very often. So they might have wanted to promote their new blue kit as much as the Scots wanted to promote their new kit.
On that note, during USA 94, Sweden wore their white change kit as often as the yellow one, for practical reasons no doubt. They did play pretty well in it too as I recall.
I thought Sweden only wore white in WC94 against Romania and Brazil?
Wales wore a rarely used white third kit at home to New Zealand in May 2007 forcing them to change from white to blue!
This subject constantly annoys me and I despair sometimes at our overlords in the SFA who go out of their way to promote their commercial intrests by pushing change strips.Even thought the ‘salmon pink’ and artistic splash strips have asumed cult status I object to the dropping of our national colours and feel the players wearing these tops cannot take themselves seriously in what often turns out to be their one chance of pulling on a national jersey.It rages me to see countries who always seem to wear their home strip no matter where they are assuming a natural superiority (Brazil,Germany and Italy for instance) because they have bulldozed over the smaller national association.In my opinion ‘home’ should mean just that and the ‘away’ team should wear something that does not clash no matter how big a nation they are.
Denis, they also wore white against Cameroon in the group stages.
its so true john. the one team they’d unveil it against and they would have to have the exact primary colours as the new scotland away kit and sweden wore blue to make it even more confusing to people who have just tuned in on TV.
I agree it is rather daft, and another sign of how much teams are bowing to the demands of sponsors these days.
Launching a new away kit is one thing, but launching it against a team whose home kit is the colour of your new away kit, forcing them to change, is even more absurd. I know the English have done it a few times when launching new away kits, against Belgium and Switzerland, who both happen to wear red (and had to change to white kits!).
I also remember that Wales game that Andrew talks about, I was actually at the Racecourse that day when we played New Zealand, and wondered why the hell we were wearing a white kit. The kit only got used the once, in a very poor 2-2 draw, and got consigned to the dustbin, despite the fact that it could have been called upon for the friendly in Holland in 2008 (when we wore yellow, forcing the Dutch to wear sky blue!).
Anyway I hate it when we have a white away kit, just, hate it. I’m intrigued to find out what Umbro have cobbled up for the new Welsh away kit, which should get used in Montenegro but no details yet. I will go mad if it’s white, I tell you!
Looks like my worst fears were true……. the new Welsh away kit is white, and what a poor start to the qualifying campaign. Bring back yellow………..!!!