I’ve just had a quick check through and I may be wrong but in the last two seasons every club that has played in the Premier League has had a black or very dark blue/navy away/third kit except for Arsenal and Middlesbrough (who have had their fair share of black kits in the past). I’m sure that in the lower leagues the penchant for black/dark away kits is widespread too. Its almost getting to the point where every match will have the home team in their standard colours and the away team in black! Personally I’m getting a little tired of seeing a team coming out in a dark and mysterious black outfit. It seems a lazy choice for change colours. I’d like to see a more varied palette across away/third kits in the coming seasons – there’s plenty of colour scope relating to clubs’ histories and it would really freshen up the teams.
THE FOOTBALL KIT HISTORY SITE
As a counter point, what about a list of the best black away kits? The recent best one that springs to mind is the 2006/07 Real Madrid Away Shirt .
They won La Liga last season and the shirt also sports the badge for “Best Club of the 20th Century” as awarded by FIFA. Can’t find that on any other shirt!
I think Real Madrid put the badge on to celebrate their 105th anniversary on 6 March 2007.
Good idea, Alvin!
I’ve always felt that teams should have one ‘dark’ strip (and I don’t mean black!) and one ‘light’ for home and away matches. That way, you can always reach a compromise in finding a contrast when one team plays another.
When a team has, say, two dark strips and they travel to play a team who also has a dark home strip, it’s often tricky to make out who’s who. Anyway, that’s me and my old-fashioned approach…
Good idea! Cool blog