Midweek Mashup – Paris Saint-Germain, 1994

• Thanks to the guys behind Histoire du PSG for their assistance

In the summer of 1993, Paris Saint-Germain went in a different direction with their kit approach.

Having had white as their first-choice colour for much of the 1980s and into the new decade, they returned to something resembling the ‘Hechter’ style introduced in 1973, red flanked by blue.

The new strips would inspire PSG to win the league title for the second time while they would reach the semi-finals of the European Cup Winners’ Cup.

Seat, added as a sleeve sponsor to the domestic kit, took centre-stage on the European strip and the default combination was worn as they beat Apoel Nicosia, Universitatea Craiova and Real Madrid to reach the last four. Incidentally, they had beaten Real in the Uefa Cup quarter-finals in 1992-93 – in that season, the game in Paris was white at home to blue, similar to the Champions League clash in 2019-20.

In the semi-finals, PSG’s opponents were Arsenal. This was a period when Uefa were inconsistent in their adjudication as to which side should wear a change kit – the home sides had worn alternative kits in each leg in the Gunners’ quarter-final win over Torino – but for the PSG-Arsenal tie the away teams wore their second kits.

However, PSG wore a mashup in each leg. For the first leg, a 1-1 draw at the Parc des Princes on March 29, the home side wore their white away shorts – presumably, Uefa decreed that the shorts-clash had to be solved and Arsenal didn’t have a yellow set with them.

A fortnight later in London, Arsenal were in their traditional red and white but PSG were in a pickle. Obviously, the home kit had too much red and the white sleeves and shorts of the away were also considered troublesome.

The solution was for PSG to resurrect the blue away shirt of the previous season, with the Seat sponsorship added, and it was worn with the blue home shorts and white away socks.

Unfortunately for PSG, Kevin Campbell’s goal sent Arsenal through and they went on to claim the cup as they beat Parma in the final. PSG would go all the way in 1996, however.