England’s lucky red shirt?

england-red-away-shirtAny reader of True Colours will know how much interest I have in the symbolism and importance of a good looking kit and the power of colour theory. Although I am a massive fan of the current England home shirt, it doesn’t seem to have brought the side much in the way of good fortune in South Africa. With the game against Slovenia now proving make or break for Capello’s team I can’t help but wonder if the fact that England will be wearing their red away kit in the match will have any bearing on the performance?

The spirit of ’66 is definitely required now if England are to lift themselves out of what has been a torrid tournament so far for them and the latest away shirt is the closest recent design to the jersey sported by Bobby Moore and the rest of team when England last won the trophy.

Could this fact and the proven significance of red as a sporting colour help inspire the team to do the business on Wednesday?

20 Replies to “England’s lucky red shirt?

  1. I’m not superstitious John, but if I was, I would try anything to help turn around what up until now has been a below par performance.
    Although I fear like the mountain graphic on the Slovenia shirt, Wednesday’s game will be another up hill struggle for Capello’s men.

  2. Footballers are incredibly superstitious, so maybe there is some small psychological advantage to wearing a “lucky” colour, even if there is no rational reason for it.

    After the Euro 96 grey shirt Umbro have stuck exclusively to red for our away kit. I wonder, if we had won that semi final against Germany, would grey have become a lucky colour and found its way into England’s wardrobe more often ?

  3. I believe teams should stick to traditional away shirt colours anyway but that’s not being superstitious, more its being symbolic as to the respective club’s or country’s roots and/or history. I could only look on in disdain at arsenals latest away shirt. the design not bad but i feel though it should be either yellow with royal or yellow with navy at all times with a blue third kit just in case we meet watford/ rc lens/bradford/lecce in a cup competition

  4. I think you should throw your name in to the hat if Capello does resign John!! I reckon we’ll see a different England performance on Wednesday. Bit controversial, but I wonder if Capello should drop Rooney and start with Crouch?

  5. Hello David – yes, I have mixed feelings about the new Arsenal kit – my opinion varies everytime I look at it. Design is OK but there’s something about the colour scheme that is just…too much

  6. Given I was 10 at the time, I didn’t actually mind the Euro ’96 away kit. It had a great collar and the numbers looked fantastic. Was I alone in this fact?!!

  7. Thought the all red kit looked great, made it look really retro. Looks a great alternative to the all white home kit.

  8. thought it looked quite good today,still prefer the white shorts though.love the tracksuit jackets that there wearing too,very smart.

  9. Hopefully we’ll wear it again (with the white shorts) against Germany on Sunday. I actually like the white kit better but Germany in white and England in red represents a classic image.

  10. give me white/navy/white for home kit and red/white/red for change kit…………….oh and a decent defence!!!

  11. Serves them right for wearing all-red and playing like us Welsh. Now you know what its like to get stuffed 4-1 by Germany 😀

  12. The ironic thing is that Umbro are indeed making the new Welsh kit, so I’m hoping that it will be lucky for us. And unlucky for them across the Dyke 🙂

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