The boys over at FIFA have turned style gurus for this World Cup. First they declared that teams must play in all one colour, undermining the history of teams such as Germany who traditionally play with black shorts, England, Spain and Argentina who play in blue shorts to wear all one colour kit. This has angered most fans who say FIFA are disrespecting the tradition, culture and history of these great nations. Now FIFA have taken it a step further, and have deemed Spain’s away kit which was launched earlier this year as illegal under their rules, specifically rule 35.2, which states:
“Each team shall inform FIFA of two different and contrasting colours (one predominantly dark and one predominantly light kit) for its official and reserve team kit (shirt, shorts and socks)”.
Spain’s home shirt is red, with the away shirt being black. It appears Spain will have to play in a white kit, which could be the white shirt which was used in 2011, or Adidas may release a completely new shirt if they can get one ready in time, which will anger fans who have already gone out and bought the current away shirt, advertised as the “Spain 2014 World Cup Away Shirt”.
We will have to see what happens and if FIFA will force Spain to play in an “unofficial” kit, whether the RFEF (Spanish FA) will object or whether Adidas will have any influence. It could also cause problems for some others, with teams such as Mexico wearing a dark green home shirt and dark red away shirt, and Cameroon were spotted wearing an unknown white (possibly third) kit recently, their official home and away kits are green and yellow respectively.
Spain are drawn as the home team, so the usual protocol would be for them to wear red and The Netherlands to wear their away kit, which is dark blue. This makes perfect sense to everyone in Football including the Spanish FA but not FIFA. It could mean Spain wearing white against The Netherlands, Black against Chile and finally red against Australia in their three group games.
Adidas still have the black away kit on sale (It’s also being sold on the Official FIFA store).
About Michael
Michael Adams is the founder and editor of Michael 84, blogger from Newcastle, UK. Sharing men's fashion tips, style advice and lifestyle information for all guys.
