On this day 30 years ago, Manchester United continued on a journey that would end with the club winning the English domestic league and cup double for the first time.
Having won the inaugural Premier League in 1992-93, United were firmly on their way to becoming the English game’s superpower. When they beat Wimbledon at Old Trafford in November, they were 11 points clear at the top of the table and, by the time they travelled to Selhurst Park to face the Dons in the FA Cup fifth round on February 20, 1994, they still held a healthy seven-point lead over Blackburn Rovers.
A 3-0 win over Wimbledon continued their serene progress. It all went pretty much as expected as United – able to field their first-choice 11 – displayed their superiority. What lifted the game above the unremarkable was the quality of two of the goals – a brilliant first-half volley from Eric Cantona to open the scoring and a lovely move finished to the net by Denis Irwin for 3-0. Paul Ince scored the other one – serviceable but scrappy – in between.
Those two strikes lead to footage of the game being shared quite often on social media and, when that happens, we are usually asked the same question – why were the teams in change kits when their home strips didn’t clash with each other?
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The prosaic answer is that Wimbledon may not have clashed with United – but they did with the match officials.
When the Premier League began the previous season, referees and linesmen were clad in green shirts, meaning that teams were able to play in black for the first time. United would of course exploit this for 1993-94 – though Queens Park Rangers took the accolade of being the first team to play in black in the new league – while Wimbledon also effected a change.
In 1968, navy shirts had been outlawed by the FA, forcing Arsenal and Tottenham into hasty changes for their away kits at the time. In 1993, Wimbledon decided to take advantage by darkening the shade of blue on their home strip from royal.
However, in the both Coca-Cola Cup and FA Cup, officials continued to use black and the Dons had to don their alternative kits in those competitions, even at home. Sometimes, they opted for white and black – as against Sheffield Wednesday that season – and sometimes red, as against United.
Were they choosing the option that would most discommode their opponents? It’s not for us to say. When United returned to Selhurst Park in the league in April – wearing their white change socks – the navy-wearing Wimbledon beat them 1-0.
Ahh yes, the latter end of an era when the hard-nosed FA were still absolutely insistent that match officials had to wear black in the full-time professional game rather than wear alternate colours. It still happens at non-league level even now in 2024, which is beyond belief in the modern game.
But yes, it was odd seeing Wimbledon being forced to wearing a change strip for cup matches as a result. I believe they still had to wear red or white for cup matches until 1997/98, when referees were – somewhat strangely, given three almost black shirts to choose from, which all had gradient stripes (red, white or blue), none of which were ideal when Wimbledon wore navy.
I do wonder what would have Wimbledon worn had they been drawn against a red and white team? I know that a certain sister site of an Insane Football News website cataloguing football shirt history has a yellow and navy shirt listed as the “away” shirt for 1993/94, but this was most definitely not worn. It may have been a prototype, though to work around the FA’s rule on officials’ strips, this would have been a plausible option had it would have been a good option to use.
Sorry my last sentence didn’t make sense 🙈 it was meant to say a plausible option due to the same club home colours being used.
It may seem archaic for the FA’s insistence on all black for referees in the lower leagues (if that’s still the case). However, up here in Scotland, qualifying referees need to have about four or five different shirt/sock colours so they never clash with a team. That’s four or five shirts/socks that the referee themselves need to purchase and pay for. Qualifying to be a ref is already a costly experience with exams etc, without then asking them to fork out another £125+ for four different shirts.
I’d never understood why officials are being asked to wear other colour shorts and socks, that is a bit overkill. Just a different colour jersey with black shorts and socks is sufficient, and something Scottish officials have done since time immemorial AFAIK, with navy being a regularly used colour.
Even in the Welsh lower leagues, officials wear different colours if a team’s shirt is deemed to clash with black. But the (English) FA were really hard nosed about it, even at level 5. My team wanted a black away kit for 2022/23 only to be told they weren’t allowed to, and I heard rumour Southend United were told they’d have to stop wearing navy but there seemed to have been some compromise that allowed them to continue wearing navy (they too had fallen foul of the snooty FA and Football League bigwigs back in 1968 by the way).
Anyhow, back on track, I did notice that in the 1997/98 season Wimbledon did get to wear their usual navy, and yet some officials still wore black 🤨 and on a similar note, Aston Villa wore their navy away kit at Sheffield United in an FA Cup tie in 1996 and that was allowed to pass.
But I ask again: at a time when it’s hard enough to find new referees willing to commit to the time and cost (and abuse) of refereeing, whose paying for these extra three or four shirts that the referee will need?
I remember Wimbledon wearing white shirts in a cup replay against Liverpool at Selhurst Park but wore their usual blue strip at Anfield for the league and cup games