“When did fans wearing replica kits become a thing?” asks Alex Ecob. “Older footage shows people in regular clothes and a few scarves/flags in the team colours. What kickstarted the trend? Did one club get there first?”
As the question suggests, this is a not a straightforward answer. Buckle up folks, as we veer wildly from copyright acts to academia, via multiple reports of unofficial kits, DIY jobs, cup-final special editions, youth strips, sew-on jobs and the like. But if we are to draw a line in the sand, and declare one date or one jersey as the first official, adult replica kit to be sold by a club to the general public (or at least those close enough to the club shop), then we probably have to give the gong to Leeds United in 1973, although only children’s sizes were produced initially.
“The first replica kit was produced by Admiral for Leeds United in 1973-74,” emails Chai from Atlanta. “History has it that Leeds’ manager, Don Revie, and Admiral owner, Bert Patrick, had a chance meeting at a cafe. There they agreed on Admiral paying Leeds £7,000 to wear a redesigned kit with the brand’s logo visible on their shirt and shorts. Patrick also secured the copyright to produce full replica kits for children, which sold for around £5.
“Following Leeds’ success, by the 1977-78 season, 84 out of the 92 clubs in the English Football League featured a prominent manufacturer’s logo and replica kits for kids. In Scotland that year, Umbro was selling Rangers and Celtic and Adidas were selling Aberdeen and Dundee United replica shirts. In Germany, Adidas had a monopoly on the Bundesliga. However they did not sell replica shirts of each club. Instead they sold plain shirts in the various clubs’ colours and kids were expected to sew on the club’s badge themselves to make it look official. If adults wanted to show their support, they were expected to buy the club’s tracksuit in which the players warmed up before the match. The first replica shirt for adults was Admiral’s World Cup 1982 England shirt.”
The Revie/Patrick/cafe story has been verified by Admiral themselves, here. “Revie, ever pragmatic and ahead of his time, agreed in principle – with one condition,” reveals the company. “The home kit, with its pristine all-white ensemble inspired by Real Madrid, was sacrosanct and not up for discussion. But the away strip and training gear? Those were open to reinvention. A handshake sealed what would become one of the most influential deals in football history. Admiral immediately set to work, with the goal of launching the new away kit by Christmas. The result was a bold and modern design: a vivid yellow shirt with striking blue and white taping down the sleeves – a stylistic innovation never before seen on a football kit. The Admiral logo sat prominently on the chest, alongside Leeds United’s iconic “smiley” crest – a badge introduced by Revie as part of his wider effort to foster a family-friendly, nationally adored image for the club.”
One possible reason why clubs and brands hadn’t explored selling replica kits earlier in the UK was the 1968 Design Copyright Act, which ensured that only a certain brand could produce a particular design once it had been officially registered. Before that point, it was the wild west.
“This article suggests the first replicas were Umbro youthsets (for children) – or Umbrosets – in 1959, with Manchester United as the featured team, albeit unofficially,” highlights Nick Williamson. Early Umbrosets were endorsed by United manager Matt Busby, but by 1964 he had been replaced on the packaging by his young striker Denis Law, who seemed to endorse not only the replica kits of United and Scotland but “also eight other leading English clubs, three Scottish clubs and the international kit of England”.
The article continues: “Football clubs themselves were not a primary, nor even an especially proactive part of the marketing process of these kits, though some, such as Manchester City, did stock replicas in their club shops and promote sales through their match programme.” But it seems that we cannot truly say that these were replica kits, akin to the shirts worn by the players, but rather unofficial garms that were occasionally and sporadically endorsed or stocked by players, managers and clubs.
Paul Haynes flags this academic research by Christopher Stride, Nick Catley and Joe Headland, who scanned crowd photos from the 1960s but could not find evidence of replica shirts being worn as matchday apparel by either adult or child fans until the mid 1970s, and then only by male fans at cup finals.
“A photo of Newcastle supporters at the 1974 FA Cup final depicts small numbers dressed in (unbranded) replica shirts,” the research reads. “Admiral-manufactured teamwear can also be spotted on adult Manchester United fans at the 1979 final, though in both cases the tightness of the sleeves hints at large youth sizes. Likewise a handful of Liverpool fans at their European Cup finals of 1977 and 1978 wore replica shirts, and the Scotland fans invading Trafalgar Square prior to the 1977 England v Scotland international also featured replica-clad revellers.”
We’ll end with a lovely personal tale from Jon Keen, which highlights how slowly some clubs were to catch on to the trend. “In Autumn 1979 I had the bright idea of getting myself a shirt as worn by the Reading FC team that year,” he emails. “The logistics were horrendous, as it seems no one had ever thought of doing that before. I had to order it individually through the local shop that supplied the football club themselves, the wonderful old-school Blake’s Sports Outfitters. They then had to order this, as a one-off, from the manufacturers, Bukta, and I didn’t actually receive the shirt until the following June, when the season was well and truly over! I loved that shirt, I wish I still had it, although no way it’d fit me now!”
Can you find any earlier official replica kits, or from further afield than the UK? Mail us with your answers.
Costly red cards, part II
Last week, we featured some of football’s most damaging red cards, dismissals that acted as the catalyst for a side’s demise, and Chris Lewis has a new suggestion. “Surely Fabio Cannavaro’s sending off in the 2010 Europa League tie versus Fulham merits inclusion?” he emails. “I appreciate the question may have been intended for over 90 minutes, but this turned a two-legged tie on its head for one of the best nights I’ve ever experienced as a Fulham supporter.
“Juventus were 3-1 up from the home leg in Turin, and scored early at Craven Cottage to go 4-1 up on aggregate with an away goal. Although we equalised, the game was finely balanced until World Cup winners Cannavaro made a rash challenge on goal-bound Zoltan Gera, resulting in a red card. After that, we ran riot in a famous night on the River Thames, scoring three more goals – including a sublime chip from Clint Dempsey (during a brief conversation at a ‘meet the players’ event, the American told me he’d intended a cross to the back post) – to settle the tie 5-4 in our favour.”
Matthew Hague offers an unusual example where a red card actually helped. “Barnsley were 1-0 down to Doncaster in 2008,” he writes. “Darren Moore was sent off in the second half and Barnsley scored four to win 4-1. Even the Doncaster manager commented that it was a catalyst for the game to change.”
Knowledge archive
“Barcelona’s MSN have 56, 46 and 48 international goals – has any lineup in history had three players with 50 international goals to their name?” wondered Ben Janeson back in 2016.
“The short answer is no,” emails Chris Goodall. “This is easy to check as there have only been 49 members of the international 50 Goal Club, the majority of whom played for the likes of Thailand and Iraq. If we allow future members of the 50 Goal Club to count, then we have a winner: Ferenc Puskas, Sandor Kocsis and Lajos Tichy all played together for Budapest Honved in the mid-50s, though Puskas had long since defected to Real Madrid and Spain by the time Tichy made it to his half century.
“Then there’s the strange Inter squad of 2000-01, where three players who subsequently scored 50 international goals were kept out of the first team by two players who didn’t. Early in the season Marco Tardelli replaced Marcelo Lippi as manager and installed Álvaro Recoba as Christian Vieri’s strike partner. Hakan Sukur (51 goals for Turkey) was dropped to the bench, Robbie Keane (68 goals for the Republic of Ireland) was loaned out to Leeds, and Ronaldo (62 goals for Brazil) never made it out of the treatment room.”
Update: It should also be noted that the Barcelona trident of Lionel Messi, Samuel Eto’o and Thierry Henry all surpassed 50 international goals but not during the years they played together in Catalonia (2007-09). Messi didn’t reach his half century until 2016, Eto’o in 2011 and Henry in September 2009 (two months after Eto’o left for Inter).
Can you help?
“Jamie Spencer, 17, made his first-ever first-team appearance in a competitive match, for Huddersfield Town at Doncaster on 9 September in the prestigious EFL Trophy,” emails Richard Askham. “He came on as a substitute in the 66th minute and scored with his second touch of the ball, one to control it and the second to score. Has anyone ever scored with their very first touch, which is the only way to better young Spencer’s achievement?”
“Players from 21 different nationalities featured in the starting lineups of Manchester United and Sabah in their Champions League meeting,” notes Sajad 401. “But which match holds the record for the highest number of different nationalities represented in a European football match?”
“There still hasn’t been a 0-0 draw in Serie A this season, after four rounds of matches,” writes Stephen Hogg. “Is this getting near a record yet?”
“Watford had a starting XI comprised of 11 different nationalities against Preston earlier this month,” starts Peter Skilton. “Not only that, but of the five substitutes used, four were also unique nationalities, giving 15 different countries represented. My question is twofold; firstly has any team completed the full set with 16 different nationalities from the starting 11 and used subs (or more if the competition allows for more than five subs), and secondly, what is the lowest level where 11 different countries have made up a starting XI?”
“If Tottenham fail to score a goal against Aston Villa this weekend it means that they will go from May to at least October without finding the back of the net in a league match (due to the irritating international break coming up),” teases Steven Pye. “In terms of teams firing blanks in the league, what is the longest dry spell both in terms of days and actual game time?”