Football Kit In association football, as in a number of sports, football kit refers to the standard equipment and attire worn by players. The term football kit should be distinguished from a strip, which refers to just the soccer shirt, shorts and socks, although the terms are sometimes used interchangeably. The sport’s Laws of the Game specify the minimum football kit which a player must use, and also prohibit the use of anything that is dangerous to either the player or another participant. Individual competitions may stipulate further restrictions, such as regulating the size of logos displayed on soccer shirts and stating, that in the event of a match between teams with identical or similar colours, the away team must change to different coloured attire.
It is normal for individual competitions to specify that all outfield players on a team must wear the same colours, though the Law states only The two teams must wear colours that distinguish them from each other and also the referee and the assistant referees. In the event of a match between teams who would normally wear identical or similar colours the away team must change to a different colour. Because of this requirement a team’s second-choice is often referred to as its away football kit or away colours, although it is not unknown, especially at international level, for teams to opt to wear their away colours even when not required to by a clash of colours, or to wear them at home. The England national team sometimes plays in red shirts even when it is not required, as this was the strip worn when the team won the 1966 FIFA World Cup. Many professional clubs also have a third football kit, ostensibly to be used if both their first-choice and away colours are deemed too similar to those of an opponent. Most professional clubs have retained the same basic colour scheme for several decades, and the colours themselves form an integral part of a club’s culture. Teams representing countries in international competition generally wear national colours in common with other sporting teams of the same nation. These are usually based on the colours of the country’s national flag, although there are exceptions—the Italian national team, for example, wear blue as it was the colour of the House of Savoy, the Australian team like most Australian sporting teams wear the Australian National Colours of green and gold, neither of which appear on the flag, and the Dutch national team wear orange, the colour of the Dutch Royal House.
The Laws of the Game specify that all players, regardless of gender, must wear the same football kit, however in September 2008 the Dutch women’s team FC de Rakt made international headlines by swapping its old strip for a new one featuring short skirts and tight-fitting shirts. This innovation, which had been requested by the team itself, was initially vetoed by the KNVB, Dutch football’s governing body, but this decision was reversed when it was revealed that the FC de Rakt team were wearing hot pants under their skirts, and were therefore technically in compliance.
Referees, assistant referees and fourth officials wear football kits of a similar style to that worn by players. Although not specified in the Laws of the Game, it is considered a principle of football that officials wear soccer shirts of a different colour to those worn by the two teams. In 1998 Premier League referee David Elleray was forced to change his shirt midway through a match between Aston Villa and Wimbledon as it was deemed too similar to that worn by the Wimbledon players. Black is the traditional colour worn by officials, and the man in black is widely used as an informal term for a referee, although increasingly other colours are being used in the modern era. The 1994 World Cup was the first in which FIFA allowed officials to wear colours other than black. Referees also sometimes have sponsors’ logos on their soccer shirts, although these are normally confined to the sleeves. If you want to find out more about football apparel, please visit Soccer shirts
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