A blue kit for England? It might seem like a strange move at first, but blue has always been part of England’s footballing DNA. To illustrate, we’ve asked kit historian and designer John Devlin of True Colours Football Kits to take us on a quick journey back through England’s blue moments…
“Blue really seems to be the en vogue football kit colour at the moment with Manchester United, Arsenal and, crikey, even Liverpool, all adopting the colour within their away kits. Top of the pile though is the new England away strip that takes a fresh look at the English colour scheme and re-introduces blue as the team’s new away shirt.
Yes, you read that right, re-introduces. As well as its role as England’s shorts colour over the years, research by www.englandfootballonline.com suggests that actually blue was more than likely the country’s first ever away kit colour. Certainly the oldest recorded appearance of an England change strip back in 1935 was royal blue and was worn in a 3–0 win over Germany.
Another blue change shirt cropped up against the USA in the 1950 World Cup Finals. Although its not surprising this shirt is often overlooked as the match ended in a shock 1–0 triumph for the USA in a game most England fans won’t want to remember! Nine years later the colour also re-appeared as a V-necked change strip in a match against Peru.
The 1970 World Cup finals in Mexico saw blue take centre stage as an England’s primary change colour. This time the shade was much lighter and was introduced under the belief that it would be a cooler colour than red to wear in the fierce Mexican heat. The technologically advanced perforated fabric that manufacturers Umbro used to craft the short-sleeved, crew neck shirts must also have helped combat the sun. However these new light blue shirts were used only once in the tournament – in a 1–0 win over Czechoslovakia. By the time England faced West Germany in the quarter finals three days later and found themselves again having to adopt a change outfit, red had returned. The colour was brought back due to the fact that against the Czechs England’s light blue shirts had clashed dreadfully with their opponent’s white jerseys when watched around the world on black and white TVs, which were of course the norm at the time.
England fans had to wait 16 years for another blue kit and again it was a Mexican World Cup that prompted its production. Once more the fabric was light blue Aertex but this time round the jersey was a third choice behind the white home and red away. In the end the jersey wasn’t needed in the tournament but the matching light blue shorts and socks did see some action when they accompanied the home kit in the infamous Argentina ‘Hand of God’ match.
Umbro and the FA continued with light blue England third kits well into the 90s. A button up crew neck top was launched two years after Mexico 86 in a design that mirrored that of the home, but like the Mexico blue outfit, it was never actually worn in a match despite generating plenty of publicity on its unveiling including appearing in a photo of the entire squad just prior to their departure for the 1988 European Championships.
In 1990 a new third blue kit was produced and again it featured a similar design to the home shirt. This strip DID get worn – it was sported in a 1991 1–0 victory over Turkey. The final light blue England third kit of the 80s/early 90s era appeared in 1992 and featured a tidy button up collar and a large two tone shadow print of the famous three lions, rendered in a slightly cartoon-like fashion. This strip managed two appearances: a 2–2 draw against Czechoslovakia (no strangers of course to an England blue kit) and a 1–0 defeat to Spain, before being mothballed.
Of course the bookend to the England blue strip saga is the so-called ‘indigo blue’ away kit worn at Euro 96 that “looked good with jeans” and was worn in the nerve-wracking semi-final defeat to Germany…but in my opinion it was really grey!
When you think about it, blue, and particularly navy, is an integral part of England’s kit colour heritage. After all the side have worn blue shorts more often than not since the late 1800s. In fact the surprise isn’t so much that the new away kit is blue, its actually that it hasn’t been blue more frequently – although certain events of July 1966 may have something to do with that. But I’m sure I’m not the only person to think that actually a change from red may just help dispel some of the enormous burden the weight of expectation that England’s only World Cup crown brings to the team and the supporters.”
Thanks to John for his expert insight into England’s history of blue kits – check out more of his illustrations at True Colours Football Kits
