With blue off the agenda due to the strong opinions of a section of fans, adidas have had to become creative in terms of mixing things up for Bayern Munich.
In 2021-22, for instance, the home kit was a mix of red and maroon and apparently a two-tone striped shirt is in the offing for 2024-25.
For the current campaign, Bayern are in white shirts with red sleeves (a reverse Arsenal, basically) and red shorts and socks – see here for Fantasy Kit Friday where we tried different colour-schemes, including shades of the forbidden blue.
The presence of red shorts and socks in addition to the sleeves means that Bayern have had to change away to teams in red and white – the only away fixture where they have appeared in their first-choice kit is at rivals Borussia Dortmund.
In fact, given that there have been two home games where alternatives were used – the traditional Oktoberfest kit against Bayer Leverkusen and a Champions League clash with Galatasaray where Uefa mandated a change due to a lack of alternative solutions – Bayern have actually appeared more in their black second kit than the home strip.
The black outfit, featuring a stylised map of the world picked out in green and purple, has been worn in 11 games across all competitions in the first half of the season, with the white and red kit used nine times.
The cream and burgundy third kit has been worn three times – in the Super Cup defeat at home to RB Leipzig and twice with change shorts, against Preußen Münster in the DFB-Pokal and the 5-1 loss away to Eintracht Frankfurt.
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It is the only mashup used by Bayern so far.
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Incidentally, for most of the season, Audi have given over their sleeve sponsorship to the ‘Rot gegen Rassimus’ (‘Red against racism’) initiative.
As mentioned, the Oktoberfest shirt, in the same design as the third but rendered in green, was used against the table-toppers Leverkusen.
For games in Europe, the regulations stipulate that the player name must be over the number and so the club name is absent from the back.
In their Champions League game, Bayern wore white and red twice and black four times.
Bayern’s goalkeepers have also worn four different kits – and three of them share a base colour with one of the four outfield strips.
The green, black and pink shirts are available to purchase while a white, grey and purple version has also been seen.
How many of the games played with other shirts different than the home one were mandatory? I do not know with Bayern, but Barça is Playing More And More away games with the away, third or 4rd shirt when there is no need to change.