SHIRTY FIFA AT IT AGAIN
Now England forced to wear red strip
ENGLAND will be forced to wear their third-choice red strip on Saturday because their white shirts have been deemed to clash with the blue of Scotland. The Three Lions confirmed in March that they were ditching their £60 red kit for the 2018 World Cup in Russia but they are set to wear it once more at Hampden Park.
England traditionally wear white but FIFA have decreed that their Nike kit clashes with the white sleeves of Scotland’s predominantly blue strip.
Scotland’s current £55 adidas ‘ home’ shirt broke with tradition by introducing white sleeves, and England’s white shirt features light blue sleeves.
This will therefore be England’s first outing in red since October, when they were held to a goalless draw in Slovenia. Their second kit for the World Cup will be dark blue.
It comes after Scotland were forced to wear their unpopular pink kit for their 3-0 loss to England at Wembley in November after FIFA expressed concerns over a clash.
Scotland captain Darren Fletcher said last week it would have been ‘disgraceful’ for football’s governing body to make his side wear pink again this weekend as he hit out at FIFA’s ‘crazy’ rules.
England and Scotland had worn their traditional ‘ home’ colours in all of their previous 112 meetings prior to November’s clash.
Fletcher told ESPN: ‘ When I saw the pink kit I did everything I could to stop us wearing it. I was asking, “What are we doing?” I asked if we could make a one-off kit instead but it didn’t happen. Scotland should never have worn pink against England. FIFA have crazy rules and it shouldn’t have happened. It would be disgraceful if Scotland were forced to wear their away kit at home. It should just never happen.’
FIFA rules state the home team are entitled to wear their first kit of choice during World Cup qualifying matches. The FA, therefore, had to submit images of England’s home and away kits to FIFA’s World Cup match commissioner to decide which would be suitable.
The regulations on colour clashes read: ‘If the two teams’ colours might cause confusion, the host team shall be entitled to wear its official team kit and the visiting team shall use its reserve kit or, if necessary, a combination of the official and the reserve team kits.’
England’s need to return to the red kit they discarded only in March may also come of something of an embarrassment to Nike and the FA.
The new dark blue away kit, which costs £101 for a full adult strip, was launched to much fanfare before England’s 1-0 defeat by Germany in Dortmund but was quickly accused of making Gareth Southgate’s side look ‘like Scotland in disguise’ in some quarters.