The early 1990s were when kit manufacturers began to realise that there was an ever-growing market for their wares, and so the releases became more common.
Blackburn Rovers had worn a plain yellow third kit in 1992-93, but not that often – Crystal Palace, Sheffield United and Southampton were opponents which might have been troublesome for a team with a blue-and-white-halved home and red and black stripes away, but they got by with their first-choice shirt on those occasions.
That third shirt wasn’t sold, as far as we know, but the matchworn set was recycled:
The 1992-3 all yellow kit was given to our school and we wore it as our kit in Year 11 and in 6th Form. Not a great look for a Burnley school! @mejs31
I remember playing against your school when they wore that kit. It was from an away game vs Arsenal. The yellow and black third kit was only worn once against spurs in the league cup
In the summer of 1993, it was supplanted by a new yellow version featuring large black panels at the sides.
A somewhat unusual, but nice, design, its only outing would come away to Tottenham Hotspur in the Coca-Cola Cup fourth round on December 1, 1993, a 1-0 loss. Perhaps Blackburn’s away kit wasn’t allowed due to being too close to the black of the officials, but that hadn’t been a problem for their second-round opponents Bournemouth, who of course wear those colours as their first choice.
…and then on Sunday, in Gaelic football’s McGrath Cup, the first half between Limerick and Kerry caused such confusion that Kerry changed at half-time.
Spot the difference between the first and second half at the Kerry v Limerick McGrath Cup Final this afternoon! 📸: @Diarmuid_Gpic.twitter.com/tCv5U2fuwo
It got us in mind of some of the worst clashes* we have seen, across various sports. One would think in the modern era, with nearly every top football club having three kits, that clashes would be a thing of the past, but you’d be wrong.
Spurs haven’t been blameless when the away team, either – in 2012-13, their home was all-white and away all-navy, with a silver and black halved third outfit a questionable choice. Their trip to face West Bromwich Albion could certainly have been better dealt with, though there have been worse clashes.
West Brom also proved troublesome for Newcastle United on the final day of 2002-03, though of course the blame lies with the Toon for having a cream and navy away when their home is black and white stripes.
Three years previously, Newcastle had a white away, which obviously couldn’t be worn away to Tranmere in the FA Cup. Switching to white shorts to avoid a shorts clash arguably made the overall look even worse, however.
While Arsenal generally change when away to teams with white shirts, there are times when teams visiting them will have white. Why Charlton Athletic were allowed to have white jerseys and red shorts at Highbury in 2000 is anybody’s guess.
Later that same season, Arsenal wore a new navy third shirt at home to Sparta Prague in the Champions League. While the Czech side’s shirt is dark red and a very different colour to the navy up close, from a distance there was what we might term a ‘shade clash’, so much so that Arsenal switched to their yellow away shirts for the second half.
At international level, last spring saw Belgium and Portugal both change for a friendly, with poor results.
Going further back, at the 1970 World Cup in Mexico, Czechoslovakia opted for white as their first-choice colours, so England had to change when meeting them. Their sky-blue alternative kit was troublesome for viewers on black-and-white televisions though, and so for the game against Germany in the knockout stages, England reverted to red.
Strictly speaking, the meeting of Scotland and New Zealand in the 2007 Rugby World Cup dealt with a clash as the All Blacks changed to grey jerseys, still with considerable black panelling. Combined with Scotland’s shirt in the newest Canterbury template, featuring a lot of lighter embellishments, it was far from ideal.
This was the 2011 Australian Rules Football grand final, between Collingwood (black and white stripes) and Geelong (navy and white hoops). In the AFL, the home team wears dark shorts and the away team white shorts and that helped here, as did Collingwood having black backs and Geelong white backs. In a fast-moving game, however, confusion was a strong possibility.
