Euro 2012 Kits

There’s a strong array of kits for this summer’s Euro 2012 championship with some fine efforts from all manufacturers. They’re certainly better than the Euro 2008 designs which in retrospect were fairly dull with too much emphasis on simple two-colour designs. The fact that there was such an over-riding quantity of red or white strips didn’t help in terms of variety either (although yet again this year red and white seem to dominate, especially in Group A).

For me this year adidas probably have the strongest roster in terms of incorporating tradition (e.g. the return of green to Germany’s away strip) and elegance but on the downside their templates have been pretty much the same for many years now with no adventurous thinking in terms of the application of their three stripes and the by now tired approach to their stitched/seamed panels.

There are some strong ideas from Umbro who have three teams in the tournament and Puma also have some interesting designs although on the whole I’m a little disappointed with their kits this year.

The real pick of the bunch though in my view is Nike’s French kits, especially the home, which I consider to be one of the best kits for several years. The firm have embraced the challenge of producing the France strips since taking over the contract from long-term incumbents adidas, and have excelled themselves with some forward thinking, stylish, suave and typically French outfits.

Can’t wait to see the kits in action this summer…

GROUP A

GROUP B

      

GROUP C

spain-home

GROUP D

ukraine-home

sweden-away

175 Replies to “Euro 2012 Kits

  1. Germany my favourite set, perfect mix of modernity and tradition.

    France kits are very nice kits, but not great France kits IMO.

    Denmark have already worn white shorts with the away shirt, these have had red adidas stripes, one of my pet peeves

  2. Love the Germany away strip and also the Poland home kit,very traditional,the France kits are dull to me,wheres the red? Italy havent had a decent kit since Kappa.
    Worst Netherlands strips for a bit too,not keen on all one colour kits too be honest.
    The England kits are dull too and not traditional enough for my liking.

  3. John haven’t the Czech’s gone for a darker red in their home kit? I thought it was nearer to the colour that Portugal wear?

    Why oh why have the authorities interfered to ask for all one colour strips? And how come the German’s didn’t play ball? England and France (for example) are ignoring 100s of years of history to comply. It is crazy!

    Finally I loved the Germany away shirt so much I bought one!

  4. Nice work, great to see all the kits together in one place.

    My favourite shirt has to be the Germany away which is a very classy shirt.

    The Denmark home shirt is a weird one to me, I think I read they were trying to incorporate elements of the 92 shirt but the white across the shoulders looks out of place.

    The Ireland kits are nice but it never seems possible to buy a replica without a sponsor on it which seems to be unique for an international team?

  5. Great work as usual John. There’s a real mixed bag this year. Loving some of them, while others are totally bland.

    Germany’s kits are fantastic, especially the long awaited return to green for the away. Am loving the direction Nike have gone with France…after years of Adidas flogging the 84 shirt dead horse, it’s nice to have something really different and brave.

    Italy’s kit is the worst by a mile…Puma have completely lost it with that one…almost as bad as their WC2010 shirt.

    Really like Russia and Greece’s kits too. Simple, but effective. Denmark’s is possibly the best Adidas one since they took over, but that’s not necessarily a complement as imho, all of their Denmark kits have been rubbish…and this one is only half decent as it’s emulating a Hummel one.

  6. You must be having palpitations about the Denmark change Away shorts, Denis. I can understand why they’ve done it but, as the colour palette of the Home and Away kits is identical, they’re surely the most unnecessary pair of change shorts ever (though Umbro might have something to say about that).

    They’ve even removed the navy flashes and replaced them with white. Unnecessary again, but as they are much larger than their collarbone cousins there is, again – for the purposes of balance – method in the madness.

  7. Oh, and cheers for this, John. Beautifully presented as always.

    (btw: Sweden Home kit – shorts particularly – is scandalous considering the Away has navy shorts. Would the universe have imploded if they’d gone with a darker tone to the blue?)

  8. germany away is the best. i wish england away kit was reversed ie light blue shirt and dark blue shorts light blue socks. sweden away is nice.

  9. Excellent work, as ever, John.

    To be honest, I’m a bit disappointed with the kits this year.

    I like the Portugal home, England away, and Germany away, but that’s it really…

    The France home doesn’t really look like France. There is something odd about the England home kit. As somebody else said, I don’t think Italy have had a good kit since Kappa. Portugal away is just weird. The Poland kits are strange, I mean why not have the white bar below the badges? Like the home kit.

    The Umbro kits, I probably should like, but barring the odd exception, I just think they are trying too hard to be retro, and some of the kits just look dated…

    I don’t know, they just seem a bit meh…

    Personally, I preferred the Euro 2008 selections…

  10. My favourites… Germany away, Sweden away, England away, Germany home, France home.

    I like France’s home kit, it goes away from the expected, but they’ve not gone wacky, it has a reserved, quite un-Nike-like tastefulness to it. Germany’s green and white change kit blows everything else away, I hope they actually wear it!

    Worst I think is Denmark, they may have gone for retro, but it just looks dated. Slap an ICI logo on and it’s an early 90s Middlesbrough shirt. A great shame as Denmark have a strong kit history.

  11. Interesting comments – I for one think adidas and Puma are the best suppliers at the moment (love the Germany away). Don’t think you can fiddle too much with the adidas stripes – the last time they did it (the ‘claw’ design of 2004/5) didn’t really work IMO.
    Like the Nike kits – no gingham checks here! but I disagree on the France kit – I preferred Nike’s first one, and I prefer to see them with white shirts and red socks.

  12. Absolutely Martyn, national colours *should* be sacrosanct, but as we are seeing, with England and France among others and the Netherlands to a lesser extent, they are not being treated as such.

    What ‘claw’ design are you referring to?

  13. Hi Denis,
    Around Euro 2004, adidas tapered the end of the stripes at the cuff end to a point, which meant that they resembled claws – Germany’s Euro 2004 home, black away, and Confederations Cup 2005 red away all had the design, as did Newcastle’s yellow third shirt at the time.
    Actually, on the earlier point, I don’t like England in white shorts, and an away colour other than red. The England shirt design is nice, but for me the three lions should always be navy…Umbro got it right for the WC 2002, but not since IMO. And as for Holland, it wouldn’t surprise me to see them at Euro 2012 using the away kit shorts with the home shirt more often than not (as with the Euro 2000 strip).

  14. Hi Denis,
    Yes, black shorts were first choice in 2000, but I’d like to see them used in 2012 to give the same ‘look’. Holland don’t look quite right to me in all orange.

  15. I like that at Euro 2000, when Holland had to change the black shorts, they switched to white, instead of orange.

    I don’t know why I liked that, or why I posted it!

  16. I’ve had a look around, but can’t find anything.

    It may have been a qualifier, or a friendly, that I happened to see, or something – from around that time.

    Or, it might have not actually happened, and I just imagined it!

  17. France’s kits are the best although I would prefer the traditional white shorts and red socks with the home kit.
    Poland’s kits are the worst. Two badges on the shirt was not a good idea.

  18. A mixed bag of kits.

    Really good show by Adidas this time around.Greece H + A look good.Germany away the best shirt of them all.The only downside is the ultra-blandness of the Ukraine outfits.

    Poor from Nike I must say.Netherlands just doesnt work for me.Neither does Polands which given they are one of the hosts deserved a bit better than a brazil-like template.The Croatian away is a badly thought out strip.The new direction for France is not my favourite here but its ok.A lot different from the Adidas

    Umbro is a bit hit-and-miss.England not too bad but nothing special either.Dont like Irelands home kit.Going back to 1988 (my earliest memory of the game) it is perhaps my least favourite of our home shirts in that time.For me Its more a style suited to Northern Ireland than Ireland.the 3 sponsor ruins what is otherwise a perfect Irish away shirt.Swedens away is also top notch.

    Disappointing show from Puma also.Neither of Italys kits are great.(As a leicester city supporter I would be hopeful we dont get stuck with this template for 2012/13.)The czech republic kit wasnt great but the blue running down the crest just makes it even worse.

  19. @Denis.

    Actually, Denis, I think I’m just just getting it mixed up with the previous Holland kit, which was white shorts and orange socks.

    After you mentioned the Germany match, I actually remembered Holland playing England twice around that time, at White Hart Lane, and the Amsterdam Arena, and not changing shorts.

    Actually, I was really surprised England didn’t switch to white shorts for the away game.

  20. Germanys kits taken as a pair are the best on show here in my opinion. Spains home kit is nice also but the away is disgusting. Portugals home kit is classic but again the away is rank. The Dutch home kit just looks weird, especially when paired with the orange shorts. Both Italys kit are blah. As for Umbro I am liking Swedens home kit and I think I am in the minority but I have always liked Irelands home kit with the green collar and gold pin stripes. Away is class also. Englands kits are ok. The home kit looks better when paired with red shorts like they did for the St Georges day photo shoot. Frances kits are very nice. The rest are ok but nothing special.

  21. loverly work some of the one colour kit as srared about by ather a bit odd but as a trand will be intresting to look back on i will be getting the germany away the shade of green is loverlt very 80s and the russia kit, be intresting to see if england dose badly they change the away shirt that is very brave of umbro to us the ble ton i would have like a bit lighter like the 30s away shirt but i get it as it intresting

  22. By the way, what kits will the match officials have at Euro 2012?

    Do they get new kits for the tournament, or will they just be in the Adidas kits that they had for the Champions League this past season?

  23. I much prefer the previous set of Ireland strips to these two. I don’t mind this home kit but the last one was an absolute classic, the best in my memory. This home, whilst very nice, doesn’t have that same ‘classic’ quality to it. But at least it has retained that lovely vivid green shade.

  24. The England home is growing on me, but I’m still not a fan of the red badge and name and numbering font.

    I absolutely love the away strip, however. Why does the away always have to be red, when it can look this good? Love the two shades of navy and sky blue. I’m off to buy one today!

  25. I agree with you, Nick, on the England away kit.

    Obviously, red is always going to be a big thing for England away kits, but I don’t think it has to be red every single time.

    It’s nice to have a new colour every now and then, and it was 1996 the last team England had a non-red away kit, so I think it was time for a change.

  26. I must be the only person not keen on the England away kit. I seem to recall in 1972/73 the alternate to the red shirt was yellow shirt, blue shorts with a yellow stripe and yellow socks. It was most famously worn away to Poland in 1973.

  27. You’re definitely not the only one, Jeff.

    I know lots of people who don’t like it, and think the England away kit should always be red.

  28. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FOHq0Zo4aBk

    Indeed here in action is that England kit that Jeff was talking about…….. are you Sweden in disguise? Mind you, it wasn’t the only kit oddity in that World Cup ’74 qualifying group… Wales had a dodgy one-off kit for the England match at home, and a green away kit in Poland……. but the Poles wore a very rare third strip at Ninian Park – sky blue shirts, blue shorts and white and blue hooped socks!

    Looking at the difference between the Welsh kit of 1973, and the England away kit of 2010/11, I have to say, you nicked our bloody kit (even down to the shorts design) so I’m glad you changed it to navy! 😀

  29. Also, to answer EricGeneric’s question – the officials are getting new adidas kits for the tournament, which will likely be used in most FIFA/UEFA sanctioned competitions for 2 years after that. The jerseys will be in black, light blue, grey, and fluorescent yellow – all of which have purple collars and trim.

    http://www.stockportrefs.co.uk/index.php/latest-news-blog/104-euro-2012-referees-kits.html

    Obviously these jerseys won’t be used in the UEFA Champions League, for which adidas has a different design.

  30. One more thing, just watching my recording of England v Belgium.

    Interesting to see Belgium in their black away kit, instead of their all red home kit.

    I wonder if England asked them to switch to black, so they could wear the new red goalkeeper kit?

  31. I’m amazed not to see anything positive written about the Sweden home kit. The double pinstripes (which come to a V at the back like Sunderland this season) and the collar just exude class. Sweden away is the best of the lot. The other u=Umbro ones are OK too, although there’s something a little dated about the ROI shirts. England’s home looks too white to me, and although the collar seems an alright idea, it just looks a bit weedy on everyone (but the two tone numbers look great. The away is nothing special, not nearly as nice as its predecessor.

    The only Adidas one I’m anything other than ambivalent about is the German away, which looks perfect.

    Puma have done fine, I like their Italy home template but feel like it is one of the worst applications of it, Independiente’s kits look far better. Italy away is sleek and retro. Czech is meh, although the sleeker form of the updated crest looks far better than that proposed, with a pointless football and terrible font choice/shiny rendering.

    For me, Poland was the pick of the Nike bunch until they chucked the third badge on. The number alignment at the end of the bar seemed like actual, real graphic design. The Dutch kits are nothing special. France’s home kit looks rather busy and, as has been said, rather un-Nikelike. Away looks good. Portugal’s kits look great in their striking simplicity. Croatia’s are not disagreeable, but that’s about it.

    Final point: read this on goal.com – utter rubbish, much of it. http://www.goal.com/en/news/2898/euro-2012/2012/06/02/3135931/in-pictures-the-best-and-worst-kits-at-euro-2012

  32. Congratulations for your phenomenal work, John.
    Have heard somewhere that there has already taken place the drawing of Kits of the matches of the first phase.
    During the rebroadcast last Sunday, of the match Spain – China, the speaker mentioned that it was already known how Spain was going to dress in its first three matches.
    Does anybody know anything about the topic?

  33. It would make sense for every team to have three goalkeeper kits, really.

    If you only have two, it can cause problems. If you have a blue home goalkeeper kit, and a red away goalkeeper kit, you only have to play a team in red and blue stripes and you’re in trouble.

    Yes, I’m aware that I’m pointing out the bleeding obvious! 😛

    Actually, this happened to Real Madrid this season. They have a yellow home goalkeeper kit, and a black away goalkeeper kit. When they played Real Zaragoza, Zaragoza turned up in their yellow and black stripes away kit.

  34. Like the England kit and it’s ‘old fashioned roots’ feel. Croatia, I think is awful. Really like the contrast of the Holland kits, but England gets my vote overall 🙂

  35. Article 18
    UEFA Kit Regulations
    Colours
    18.05 As a rule, the team of the host association is entitled to wear its first-choice kit as announced on the National Team Kit Approval form and the visiting team wears its second-choice kit or, if necessary, a combination of the first-choice and the second-choice kit. If the associations are unable to agree on the colours to be worn by their teams, the UEFA administration decides. If the referee notices on the spot that the colours of the two teams could lead to confusion, he decides on the colours in consultation with the UEFA match delegate and/or the UEFA administration.

    My theory 24 hours before kick off Euro 2012:
    SPAIN ITALY
    Some of the two will have to change its blue shorts
    EIRE CROATIA
    Some of the two will have to change its white shorts
    POLAND RUSSIA
    Some of the two will have to change its red shorts
    DENMARK PORTUGAL
    Some of the two will have to change its white shorts
    SPAIN EIRE
    Contrast between blue and green shorts
    ITALY CROATIA
    Some of the two will have to change its white shorts
    ENGLAND SWEDEN
    Contrast between shirt and stockings white and yellow
    CZECHIA POLAND
    Some of the two will have to change its red shorts
    PORTUGAL HOLLAND
    Contrast between all red kit and all black kit
    CROATIA SPAIN
    Some of the two will have to change its white shorts
    SWEDEN FRANCE
    Some of the two will have to change its blue shorts
    ENGLAND UCRAINA
    Contrast between white kit and all yellow kit

  36. I’ve an a feeling that Croatia will wear white socks v Ireland, with us in all-green.

    Ireland are wearing white against Italy and Spain are changing against us.

  37. sports retailer kitbag had an advert with what kit england will be wearing in the group games. if i remember rightly england will wear white against france and sweden and blue against ukraine. kitbag are selling shirts with the match detail under the england badge.

  38. Oh yeah, I know, Denis.

    I just find it odd that some teams have changed to single colour kits, seemingly because of this pressure from UEFA for single colour kits – yet others don’t seem to care.

  39. @Alex Christian – Nike, for the Poland shirts, had just the new Polish FA crest on the shirts. They left the Coat of Arms off the shirts. This went down like a lead balloon with the Polish, and Nike put the white eagle on there after the President of Poland demanded an explaination.

  40. I wish the Poles had been less fussy, or that they had never adopted the new logo.

    What annoys me is the three logos in a row, a situation handed to us by the way the Polish flag goes with the crest in the middle: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Polish_flag_with_coat_of_arms.jpg
    It looks great flying but on the kit it just meant that they could leave the new Orzelball logo on, leaving clutter all over what had been a great minimalist design.

    Nike could have moved their logo too I guess.

  41. I expect both Russia and the Czechs will wear all red against Poland with Poland either in their home kit or with white shorts. Wearing red-white-red is more likely to clash with white-red-white, at least on TV, than all red is.

    England and Sweden will probably wear their away kits against Ukraine.

  42. Im pretty impressed with a lot of the shirts at Euro 2012, and the most impressive has been the Swedish home. Classy design, lovely fabrics and I like the sock style both they and and Ireland will be wearing. Irelands home is also very nice, and the two shades of green are spot on.

    Russias two shirts are also highly impressive, the gold on the home shirt looks splendid, though I would have preferred the full coat of arms on the shirt, and the Czechs have a really nice home kit, though again, the full coat of arms instead of the new logo (which only represents part of the country, though the Check pattern on the shirt is supposed to represent Moravia, though nothing to represent the other part of the country, something that would have been avoided if they had used the coat of arms)

    The French shirts are really nice, and the lack of red on them is refreshing. Polands shirts are not bad too, though Nike really dropped the ball by not putting the white eagle on them from the start, and putting the new Polish FA logo on the back of the shirt or one of the sleeves.

    Adidas have some great kits here too, as I meantioned with Russia, and also Spain (the sky blue and navy away is beautiful, especially with the white shorts).

    Out of all the teams, only Netherlands and Denmark have two kits that are not up to standard, though the worst kit in the tournament is the awful England home, with the one colour crest and no blue anywhere, it just does not feel like an England shirt, and Ironically, this is one that was influenced by the England flag.

    Nice to see both teams in the Italy – Spain matches wearing their full first choice kits, the Italy shirt looks much smarter with white shorts and blue socks, and navy goes much better than red than the royal blue Spain used in the last two world cups.

  43. That’s a great find, Alexander! I had seen the socks listed as “GK change” I think on Kitbag or some such but didn’t realise there was a whole kit! So are we in agreement that teams have taken more gk kits than outfield kits to the tournament?

    That Uefa directive doesn’t seem to allow for third choice shorts/socks. Does this mean that England won’t be able to wear their much publicised change Home shorts (red)? Denmark wearing their Home shorts instead of their change Away shorts against Holland may imply this is the case.

  44. Is that really a rule, Jay? It’s a fairly pointless one if it is. Didn’t the Netherlands wear all-orange at Euro 2008 even though their home shorts were white and the socks ‘Nassau blue’?

  45. I’m just reading between the lines, Denis. Why didn’t Denmark wear their change Away shorts? I can only think it’s because they weren’t allowed to bring them. Has anyone else worn change Home/Away items as yet? England (with all the marketing connotations) are itching to wear the red shorts so time will tell.

    I think pointless rules are Uefa’s speciality anyway.

    This is kindof one for the other thread but here’s the blue England gk shirt being worn in a youth game http://www.gettyimages.co.uk/detail/news-photo/england-pose-for-a-team-photograph-prior-to-the-under-18-news-photo/140881444

  46. Further to this, watched a highlights reel from the last World Cup and Germany wore all black against Argentina but that wasn’t with change shorts, it was with the Home shorts (white stripes – interchangeability fail). They did have change Home shorts, assume change Away shorts too.

    Obviously England wore change Away shorts against Slovenia and Germany but there’s no evidence that they brought the white ones at all.

    I’m very open to being proved wrong, but maybe what the Dutch did in ’08 forced Uefa/Fifa into changing the rules. Two styles of shirts, two styles of shorts, two styles of shorts.

  47. Ok, so the last World Cup isn’t the precedent. Anything from Euro 2012? After a full round of games?

    It may be that socks/shorts of the same colour are banned, and that could have been the rule at the last World Cup too.

    See you in a couple of days?

  48. One thing I have been pleased about, so far, with the kits at Euro 2012, is we haven’t had both teams wearing away kits, for no apparent reason.

    I seem to remember that happening at Euro 2008.

    It does seem that teams are only changing when there is a clash, which is good. It annoys me when you see teams just donning an away kit for no real reason.

    Although, it’s still early in the tournament… so it will probably happen at some stage!

  49. I notice from above the amount of potential for mix n match amongst the kit sets of alot of teams which is great to see. Poland, Denmark, Holland, Portugal, Croatia, France, Russia, Greece, Ukraine, Czech Republic and Italy all have this element to their set. Ireland you could argue could also get away with it as darker green can blend well with a lighter shade. The home shorts could also be used with the away top and socks. England could mix and match with Joe Harts goalkeeper shirt 🙂

  50. Just to clarify it goes without saying i was referring to Joe Harts Red Goalkeeper kit opposed to the aqua blue one with the crosses

  51. Well apparently they’ve taken four different styles of shorts, not including the goalkeeper kits. So they have white, red, light blue and navy (the latter two not really suitable with the Home shirt because they have full colour crests) and then darker red, aqua and “purple” (don’t get me started). In fact, the “purple” shorts would work as a dark blue to wear with the Home shirt.

    Did actually discuss the possibility of England wearing the red gk shirt outfield – at length but tongue firmly in cheek. Obviously plenty of examples of teams wearing outfield shirts in goal but know of any instances of the reverse?

  52. I doubt that’s ever happened, Jay.

    I mean, I can’t think of a situation where it would be necessary. If you needed an emergency third kit, you’re not going to have 11 (plus however many subs) goalkeeper shirts.

    So, you’d have to ask your kit supplier for them. And you would just end up asking for a new emergency third kit, as has happened with teams in the past.

  53. Never say never. I’m thinking more: referee calls a kit clash on the day of the game and the home team raids the club shop. We’ve all commented on how little the more recent ‘keeper tops look like the ones of yore (padding etc), i.e. they often look like outfield shirts and they’re now readily available in short-sleeved.

    It may be that a team has a goalkeeper *slash* third kit, which gets used far more often between the posts? I think it’s happened somewhere. It happens in GAA regularly, as Denis will testify.

  54. Englands red gk shorts are a slightly different red to the home “change” shorts. i think Englands away kit looks better with the dark shorts than the normal lighter shorts.

  55. In fact i can remember Mandanda the Marseille goalkeeper wearing the traditional white and sky blue home colours in goal as well as the Argyle pattern style away kit back in 09

  56. Yes, certainly. But I’m thinking more the other way round. It may actually be the case that Mandanda has worn at least one of them more than the outfield players have but I mean outfield players wearing a shirt that is primarily regarded as a goalkeeper top.

    The best I’ve seen so far is a glitch on Fifa.

  57. I don’t think it’s equivalent but I agree that it must have happened or be just around a corner.

    England to wear the red goalkeeper kit outfield. YHIHF.

  58. I agree Scott, the darker shorts looked better. I have to say I dont like ligher shorts (except white) when the top is darker! Having looked at all the kits, great work again John, I have to say the French kit would look alot better with red socks (i would even forgive the absense of white shorts) and the Italy kit looks immense with the traditional white shorts!

  59. Also I would say that the Dutch home strip would look miles better with the black shorts (away ones) than the oranage. In fact I think the Portugal kit would also be enhance with Green shorts, aka Euro 04. It seems that Nike have brought football in line with their policy which they brought into rugby with France and England in the world cups of 07 and 11, using just single colour kits, which to me is ridiculous!

  60. The single colour kits thing is apparently a request from Uefa – though sponsor adidas are toeing the line less than Nike.

    The France Home shirt would go easily with the Away shorts and goalkeeper socks to make up the classic look.

  61. A lot of people (well Jay anyway) want England to wear red shorts so that if the team line up with Joe Hart at the middle it’d look like the flag.

    But have we forgotten that they wear jackets for the anthem?

  62. Joe Hart has a special red anthem jacket he wears Denis, so the effect would still be maintained as the players would wear white jackets and Hart would be in his red one.

  63. Good point, Denis!

    I don’t know why, but I hate the idea anyway.

    One more thing, doesn’t the goalkeeper always stand second in line, after the captain, for the anthems?

  64. It’s up to the keeper where he stands, tradition stems from days when teams would walk out in numerical order, bar captain at the front.

  65. I notice Nike are producing these silly kits recently where instead of trimming we are getting a green rectangle with the yellow like the Brazil shirt for the 2010 world cup.
    Poland have done it with both their shirts for these Euros and Holland have an orange vertical rectangle on their away shirt. Utterly lazy designs from multi billion industries. I don’t like fuss on a football shirt but those designs are absolute puke.

  66. Erm, Denis, I just want England to wear their red goalkeeper kit outfield. The whole Umbro marketing St George’s cross thing is better in theory than it is in practice (especially as the gk red is darker than the change Home shorts and, even ignoring that, the effect during the anthem would be the Scandinavian-style North of England flag rather than the standard St George’s cross).

    David, depressingly that Brazil shirt was released after the World Cup and they’ve just changed it again. I actually like the Poland and Holland Away shirts. Sad to see them go.

  67. England have taken the old Red Away as a “3rd” kit to Euro 2012 in the chance they play a White/Blue team (Greece?)… The 3rd GK shirt would then in theory be worn (Although as it’s Royal Blue the Green crossed one would probably be used instead!)

  68. They’ve taken the old red Away?! When they’ve got a perfectly good red kit in the shape of the “goalkeeper” kit?! That’s frankly ridiculous. With decisions like that, will we EVER see a team wear a nominal goalkeeper kit outfield?

    The FA are stealing my dream. Do you have a source you can cite, Matt?

  69. on Jay’s point about a team ever wearing a GK kit outfield, in 2009-10 season, Hibernian used their home black goalkeeper kit as their third versus Celtic and Hamilton Accies as the away kit was white therefore clashing with both teams’ home shirts

  70. Right, so here’s the shirt being worn by Graham Stack http://bit.ly/MK1Gn8 and here by the outfield players http://bit.ly/MK1YdM.

    Here the situation’s discussed by fans http://bit.ly/MK1TXp

    It seems to ring true but there are a couple of question marks. I can only find pictures of Graham Stack wearing it with short sleeves and, although that’s generally his preference, he often wears long sleeves too. Not a dealbreaker by any means but it would’ve had more of a gk ‘look’ in l/s.

    The other thing is that the decision to release an all white Away (or Away shirt – more of which *later*) and no Third kit seems bizarre, as there was always going to be cause to wear something else – arguably against anyone with white sleeves.

    I think what this comes down to is an endearingly acute sense of responsibility – and perhaps a marketing masterstroke – by Hibs. If you check the highlighted area here http://pages.citebite.com/a2x3t0o6fynl it seems the shorts doubled up as Home and Away so they were trying to increase sales by increasing the use/functionality.

    What we don’t know is what they sold the black kit as in the club shop. This mentions a Third kit http://bit.ly/LYVoTr but it’s towards the end of the season and by then had been worn in goal far more often, so it’s quite possible it was marketed as Goalkeeper/Third kit. That’s bound to increase sales, right? If anyone has any more info on this I’d love to hear it.

    If nothing else, it’s more weight to the argument that Joe Hart’s red goalkeeper kit should be doubling up as a Third kit, rather than England taking an old design – that’s already been worn in a tournament – to the Euros.

  71. From the discussion page:

    “Its orginally the home goalkeepers kit, as on the website its modelled by our Big Maka (Yves Makabu-Ma-Kalambay – goalkeeper).”

    We have a winner.

  72. it was a good move by hibs all round, only having the 1 pair of shorts for 2 kits and also utilising the GK shirt as a third.

    In the clubstore you could only buy the third/GK shirt as a longsleeve as initially it was marketed as a goalkeeper kit then it was about late Aug/Sept that the announced it was going to be the Third outfield kit as well.

    However as that season was Hibernian’s last with LCS with about 2 months of the season to go in order to get rid of excess kit room stock they brought a few items into retail stock that were initially ‘Player only’ which included short sleeve versions of the Third/GK top

    thankfully i was one of the lucky ones who managed to get my hands on the short sleeve version for the princely sum of £10 as well as having bought the long sleeve version earlier in the season!

    On a general Hibs kit note i was gutted to lose LCS as a supplier as they gave us some cracking kits over the 12 years they kitted us out and the replacement of ‘Puma’ aka Genesis Sports are terrible, poor made copies for good genuine Puma kits complete with tight torso section with ludicrously long baggy sleeves which seem to come below the elbow

    Its something im surprised more clubs havent looked at doing, both the sharing of shorts & socks good examples of the top of my head being 2010-11 Wolves shorts where they had 2 versions of black and gold shorts and the even more ridiculous situation Liverpool had in 2007-08 where they have 2 pairs of near identical black shorts for their away and third. As everyone knows people are spending less money and football clubs seem to think they are exempt from this.

  73. Strange to see the Ukraine wearing the away shirt against England tonight seen as they are the home nation.

    A lot nicer than the ukraine home kit it has to be said.

  74. Also, France wearing white against Sweden tonight…… why the French couldn’t wear white shorts I don’t know.

    An oddity from UEFA considering whenever a team in white play a team in yellow, they force one team to change just incase the 0.0001% of the global population still watching on a black and white TV set can tell the two teams apart.

  75. The Ukraine away is a very nice kit, however I just can’t take to the England one at all, jus doesn’t look right in my eyes, never been a fan of the all white look

  76. That’s “can’t tell the two teams apart”…….. oh damn I need to proof-read before I submit comments!

    Mind you it’s not unusual for host nations to wear change strips…… the English wore their away kit for a certain World Cup match that they ram down peoples throats, France wore white against Italy in World Cup 98, Mexico bizarrely wore white against Paraguay in 1986 (which semi-clashed with their opponents striped shirts, when green would have been far better).

  77. Not really falling under the True Colours debate but I dont like the pitchside advertising changing every minute.

    International tournaments should be free of that.all sponsors should be displayed for the whole match.

  78. I’m a little surprised by the electronic advertising hoardings, too Ciaran.

    They use the “old style” one’s in the Champions League, don’t they?

  79. Another thing I’m not a fan of on the England home strip: name and numbers which are a different style to the away. It’s a lack of symmetry that shouldn’t happen for a major tournament – indeed, it hasn’t been the case since France 98.

    Besides, the away kit font is classy, unique, and a nice mix of retro and modern.

  80. On the subject of the numbering and lettering, Nick, I’m really surprised that FIFA and UEFA haven’t come up with a mandatory standard font for the World Cup, Euros, Champions League and Europa League.

    It seems like something they would do…

    As for England’s ones… I don’t like the ones for the home kit, but I do like the away ones. Even though they are HUGE!

  81. The Denamrk kit is great one of my favourites from the tournament

    Could anyone tell me if the England away kit was a new design for 2011 or if it was just a release of the fabled 2010 world cup third kit? Im sure i read (possibly on here) that Umbro confirmed that there was a third kit produced which was navy blue and the design being so similar maybe im just putting 2+2 and getting 5

    On the England away kit, it looks great with the navy shorts, wasnt a fan of it previously when i saw it with the light blue shorts as thats another kit pet hate of mine which is dark shirts worn with light shorts that arent white

  82. Here is a picture of the top secret blue third kit from the last World Cup.

    http://www.englandkits.net/2010-blue-third-230.html

    It’s a nice kit, but I didn’t understand the need for it. If England did play a team in red and white stripes, the other team could have simply changed.

    It’s that flexibility you have with kits in international that doesn’t necessitate third kit, unlike in club football.

  83. No doubt the Italy v England game will be a boring all-blue versus all-white affair……. ironically I saw a clip of the two teams playing each other in 1976 in a World Cup qualifier, which Italy won 2-0.

    Italy were in their traditional blue-white-blue. England were in white-blue-white, that’s the royal blue from their Admiral days. Could I tell the two teams apart……………?

    Why, of course I could, and even though it was 5 years before I was born, I know from second-hand knowledge (the old man, former TV aerial rigger) that TV pictures weren’t the best in those days and a lot of people back then still had black and white telly.

    UEFA, seriously…….!?!?

  84. Eric, that shirt’s part of the “special edition” “tonal” crap. Surely the actual Third would’ve had a fully coloured crest – I mean AS IF they’d put a monochrome crest on an England shirt, eh? – and a white Umbro logo.

    I’m sure it’ll pop up on *insert antiquated football shirt website here* before too long.

  85. How about a bit of mystic meg predictions?
    Italy (all blue) v England (all white)
    Spain (home) v France (all white) don’t think they will let france wear all blue
    Germany (away kit) v Greece (all white) purely for Germany to market their away kit!!!

  86. We’ve had confirmation that England v Italy will be all white v all blue.

    The final will have Germany in their standard colours, France in all blue. However, in the second half France will change, a la Mighty Ducks, into blue shirt, white (Away) shorts and red (goalkeeper) socks. The camera will cut to Michel Platini in the stand who will have fury in his eyes, but immediately soften when the first words of La Marseillaise emit from the French fans and he’ll nod his approval solemnly.

  87. News is that the Germany Away sells itself. adidas have increased their revenue projections based on sales of Germany kits. Have to assume the Away is a significant contributor.

  88. I’m sure everybody here knows the answer to this, apart me, but how do they decide who wears their away kit, in the event of a clash at these tournaments?

    Is it who is technically the “away team”? Is it just some guy at UEFA? Is it decided by people from each team?

  89. I presume it’s the away team. I’d have thought that the group winners would be the home teams for the quarter-finals, but that didn’t appear to be the case in Portugal-Czech game

  90. When the draw is made, based on the team ranking they get allocated seedings (Usually stay at one ground and are usually the “home” team.

    The fixtures then show that the Group winners are the “home” team in the QF, and then (in this case) winners of QF’s 1 & 2 (Portugal/Germany) are the “home” team in the Semi. The winner of the 1st Semi is then the “home” team in the final.
    Think thats it anyway!

  91. Denis, the potential England-Germany clash would be in the Semi. Is that what you meant? Germany to wear green as a repeat of 1990? England obviously changed in ’96.

    If England played Germany in the Final and didn’t wear the red goalkeeper shirt – I’m still to hear from Matt on where he heard they’d taken the old Away – then I think I’d spontaneously combust.

  92. Not sure where I heard/read it… sorry! Just somewhere over this last month, think it was somewhere related to the 3rd gk kit.

  93. Hmmm. May never get to the bottom of that one. A need for a Third kit was never likely, and England playing another game in this tournament is…even less so.

  94. England took their third kit to Mexico 86, yeah? Just watched a doc on World Cup golden-boat winners and both teams wore home kits. If ever there was a chance to wear a third, that was it

  95. Sorry, I have to read your mind now, yes? 😉

    You talking about England-Paraguay?

    You know England took their Third kit – they wore the shorts and socks against Argentina.

  96. Germany v Italy taking place right now……. and neither team has changed any part of their kit

    white-black-white versus blue-white-blue

    As it should be!

  97. Would have been interesting to see which of Spain or Germany would have been forced to change from dark shorts. Doesn’t look like we’ll find out!

  98. Spain and Italy wore normal kits in first game, but France changed against Spain.

    Will be interesting to see if there are any changes Sunday, pretty sure Greece changed for one of the two games against Portugal in 2004

  99. France changed because they wear all blue. meaning the shorts “clashed”. I’d be surprised if either didn’t wear first choice colours.

  100. Denis – Greece did change for one of the games against Portugal in Euro 2004, that being the final.

    Back then, the home kit was blue, which was what they wore for the tournament opener. However, after defeating France in the quarter-final in their white away kit, the Greeks felt this was a lucky charm, and wore it for their next game against the Czech Republic in the semi’s….. and won that too. Then of course they wore the white kit for the final and won. From then on, the Greek Football Federation decided to switch the kits around, so that white became the home kit, and blue for away.

    However I’m sure the Greeks did wear white for some home matches during the 80’s, when they seemed to go through lots of different kit suppliers as well.. Since 2004 they have worn blue for some home matches, but white is officially designated as the home strip now.

    BTW, I’m sure the Spain v Italy game will be red-blue-red vs blue-white-blue just like the earlier group encounter.

  101. Having said about the Greeks switching kits and the latest blog posting about Cardiff City’s rebrand (disgrace – the colour change, not the article of course!!!), I feel a topic on teams changing home colours coming on……..!!

  102. I hate these block colour kits. Fair enough in the 60’s when clubs (like Liverpool) went with the solid look as a fashion statement but that was by choice, not by force like UEFA/FIFA are trying now. The excuse for “television purposes” is just so poor and outdated, like what they done with striped kits.

  103. Denis, are the France shorts and socks “mix and mismatch” “officially”? Plus, France wearing blue, white, blue would have gone against the “one solid colour” directive that Nike and Umbro seem inordinately keen to embrace.

    France have moved from blue, white, red to all blue, gradually and now officially, and temporarily switched to all white as a de facto “Home” kit in ’06 after beating Spain (possibly informing the thought process the other day) and even wore it against Brazil.

  104. Agreed. You could make a case that from Admiral to an independent Umbro, from 1982 to 2006, England didn’t really have a bad kit at a major tournament. The years under Nike ownership were just dreadful, IMO. And since switching to Nike outright, apart from the first wave of kits, they’ve been ruined by an over reliance on templates and contrasting socks, as discussed elsewhere. And does anyone else think it’s ironic that Nike did some stonking kits for the French RU team, and likewise, adidas for the football team, but since they’ve swapped, adidas have carried on the good work in RU and Nike have ruined the football team? The new home is OK, because France are used to wearing contrasting socks (typically red) for most of their history, but the away is awful, compounded further by a more or less identical shirt being used by the USA.

  105. Looking at the graphics above, I forgot how stunning the 2012 Germany away kit was.

    back to England, I thought their 2004 kit was horrible, I’d say the best one was the 2009 kit when paired with navy shorts, not a fan of England in all white and the 2012 white and red effort was dreadful, this years wins the prize as the worst, the ‘vapour’ look doesn’t suit England at all, works well for France and a few others but the White/ blue shirt and red socks is jarring

  106. If you are to believe Adidas/ JD Sports marketing guff, Ukraine are wearing ‘tartan’ tonight! Whilst I love the White/black/black for Germany, I really hate the GK outfit, just don’t like seeing keepers in dark shirts and light shorts

  107. Could deal with that, it was the Ukraine keeper wearing all lime green that I found hard to stomach – the colour was so light and so similar to yellow I thought at one point a defender had committed the most blatant handball in football history!

    That Belgium kit is a work of art though. Love it.

  108. I like it, I have to say. First impressions from a distance are that it’s rather dark, but close up it’s like a mottled, marl effect that works well. The orange trim gives it just enough of a lift, and I like the sash – first one on a Bayern shirt. I was amused by a ‘certain site’ saying it was an ‘unprecedented colour’ – what about the ’99 euro kit, and the ’11 euro kit too? The latter one was actually the same shade! Its also interesting to see the new kits previewed by the training ranges being released now – so the third kit will be white with maroon trim and pale grey diamond shadow pattern.

  109. Martyn, on the subject of England’s Umbro kits during the Nike-owned years we’ll have to agree to disagree. In my view, no one looked smarter – and I certainly include the Euro 2012 home. As for that tournament’s navy away strip, what a belter.

    And in unrelated matters, that new Bayern away is ace. Great colour scheme and I love the design too – unique but it just works. I liked it at first glance.

  110. I wonder which site you’re referring to Martyn? The one run by a some Arminia Bielefeld supporter obsessed with footwear? 😉

    I saw that and straight away remembered Bayern’s Champions League kits of 2011 in dark grey with orange trim.

  111. i thought englands kits in 2012 were belting (even if i would have preferred a red away

    but i especially liked they included a change set of red shorts that year

    they wore them against italy and looked like an england flag in the team lineup ..awesome

  112. Jon – yeah, that’s the one. They usually get kit leaks spot on though so I put up with the boot obsession!
    I made a mistake on the year – it was the 10/11 kit I was referring to, profiled at the time on this very site :
    http://www.truecoloursfootballkits.com/truecolours/bayern-munich-home-away-and-third-kits-2010-11
    The one you mentioned was the 12/13 third – a very dark grey / blue shade (like a petrol blue). So grey kits not that unusual!

  113. What the fudge has happened to the French away kit?! Gutted to see my favourite kit of the tournament replaced by a very similar but very bland version! Is it perhaps to do with a UEFA hissy fit in regards to long sleeve compression shirts?!

  114. It’s apparently a UEFA regulatory hissy fit to do with the fact that one sleeve clashed with Switzerland’s shirts. Yes, really. The same reason why France had to change to navy shorts and white socks – although IMO that looked better than the first choice.

  115. UEFA going so far to the extreme.

    Also anyone noticed how flimsy Switzerland’s shirts were? Three cases of torn shirts. Puma have a lot to answer for.

  116. Glad to see Germany extend their deal with adidas, in the middle of rumours that Nike were prepared to outbid them. Putting my natural bias towards German football aside for a moment, it would still seem weird to see Germany wearing anything other than the three stripes – a continuous fixture (in one way or another) since the short lived Erima era ended in 1980.

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