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Champions League 2019/20 – Kit Log

Dec 12, 2019Posted in GeneralTagged Champions League, Europe, Football, Football Kits, Kit Geek, Kit Log, Kits, Soccer, UEFALeave a comment

On Wednesday 11th December 2019 we reached the end of the Group Stages of the 2019/20 Champions League Campaign which means its time for me to take a look at the Kits worn within the Groups.

I have been sharing some stats via Twitter through the “Match Days” over at @Kit_Geek but here we will look at all the games and Kits used through this stage of the competition.

Match Day 1 (17th / 18th September 2019)

Match Day 2 (1st / 2nd October 2019)

Match Day 3 (22nd / 23rd October 2019)

Match Day 4 (5th / 6th November 2019)

Match Day 5 (26th / 27th November 2019)

Match Day 6 (10th / 11th December 2019)

Kit Stats

83 Kits worn in 96 games
48% (Home Kits – 31 Full Kits, 9 Varitations)
30% (Away Kits – 19 Full Kits, 5 Variations)
22% (3rd Kits – 12 Full Kits, 7 Variations)
9 Teams wore Home, Away and 3rd Kits in their 6 Games
Lille OSC wore 5 different kits in 6 games – Home (x2), Away, 3rd (x2)
Club Brugge and Zenit St.Petersburg both only wore one kit
Liverpool only wore their home kit, however in final game at Red Bull Salzburg they wore solid red socks (have they ditched the half/half socks?)

Group H

As a Kit Geek I do feel the need to highlight Group H, this group contained Ajax, Chelsea, Lille OSC and Valencia, between these four teams we saw 17 different kits used, which is 20% of all the kits used in the Group Stages!

What did they wear:

Ajax – 4 Kits

Home Kit (v Lille, Chelsea, Valencia all at home)
Home Kit variation with Black socks (v Chelsea)
Away Kit (v Lille)
Away Kit variation with Orange shorts / socks (v Valencia)

Chelsea – 4 Kits

Home Kit (v Ajax, Lille, Valencia all at home)
Home Kit variation with blue socks (v Valencia)
Away Kit variation all white socks (v Lille)
3rd Kit variation all black socks (v Ajax)

Lille OSC – 5 Kits

Home Kit (v Chelsea & Valencia at Home)
Home Kit variation with white shorts (v Valencia)
Away Kit (v Ajax away)
3rd Kit variation with solid white socks (v Ajax at home)
3rd Kit variation with Navy socks (v Chelsea)

Valencia – 4 Kits

Home Kit (v Ajax, Chelsea, Lille all at home)
Home kit variation with Black socks (v Chelsea)
Home kit variation with Orange shorts (v Lille)
Away kit variation with Black shorts (v Ajax)

Group H also provided me with my favourite kit so in the Champions League this season, the Ajax Home kit with Black socks, something classic and clean about that look that just worked for me!

Something else I like to consider is the some of the best looking kit match ups over the Competition and one that immediatley stands to me is the game at the San Siro on Tuesday 10th December where Inter Milan hosted Barcelona, the two kits looked great paired against each other.

Any stand out kits for across this season’s Champions League and any favourite Kit Match ups that you enjoyed seeing, let me know on the comments below or over at Twitter on @Kit_Geek

Champions League, Kit Log – Group Stages

Dec 18, 2018Dec 18, 2018Posted in GeneralTagged Champions League, Football, Football Kits, Kit Geek, Kit Log, Kits, UEFA4 Comments

After six match weeks, 96 games and we have now seen the end of the Group Stages of 2018/19 Champions League, so it is time for me to look back at what was worn by the 32 teams taking part.

Group A:

Group A saw relatively few kit clashes (yes, that does not normally stop teams from changing their kits, more on that later), with Club Brugge the only team to wear their three kits (3rd at Monaco and away at Borussia Dortmund). Dortmund remained in their “Champions League” home kit for all six games but did wear the alternative black shorts for four of these games. Another variation in kit was the light blue shorts worn by Atletico Madrid away at Borussia Dortmund.

Group B

In Group B we 10 of the possible 12 kits won through the Six Match Days, with Barcelona and PSV Eindhoven wearing all three of their kits. Tottenham Hotspur, as is their tradition went with an all white strip, however with their current home shirt have a gradient of navy in the lower half of the shirt was a little jarring in its appearance. Nike dominating this group, so some of the bespoke 3rd kits on show, both Barcelona and Tottenham have elements of their home cities in their shirt and Inter Milan have a graphic of the cross taken from the flag of Milan and seen used in past Inter kits. The stand out in the group for me was PSV, the kits produced by Umbro for the team this are some of the best, in particular the navy blue 3rd kit worn at Tottenham Hotspur.

Group C

Group C, well we have to start with Paris St. Germain, whose Nike Air Jordan shirts became the go to choice of shirt for the team in the Champions League this season, wearing Black in 5 out of the 6 game and white in the other (home against Liverpool), one word Marketing…. moving on, Napoli were another team that had special “Champions League” kit, very similar to their domestic kit but highlighted with neon yellow trim, the all blue version worn in the first game against Red Star Belgrade was a particular highlight (literally) for me. Red Star the only team in the group to wear all three of their kits. Liverpool only changed to their vibrant purple away kit in the game at Red Star and “forced” PSG to wear their white Air Jordan kit but refusing to change from their Home kit, a clash that caused no problem in the previous fixture at Anfield.

Group D

Looking at Group D, another Group which saw 10 out of the possible 12 kits used, with Schalke and Porto using all three kits. Another great set of Umbro kits for Schalke here, the third kit being a favourite of mine, a full green kit was worn against Porto. Galatasary could have potential worn their home kit for all six games, however wore their 3rd kit in their final home game against Porto wearing their 3rd kit (were both teams could have worn home kits with no clash, as happened in the reverse fixture).

Group E

Group E was one of the groups that saw minimal changes in each team, AEK Athens wore their home kit for all six games, Benfica for 5 games, Bayern for 4 games and Ajax for 3. A group wear Adidas supplying three of the teams in this group, saw a couple of the templates used in 2018/19 season, the Ajax away being one of the best looking kits in that style on show this season matched with black shorts, rather then gold used domestically.

Group F

In Group F, the orange group, with each team using orange as part of their kit through out the group stage. Olympic Lyon taking to the field in another one of the best versions of that Adidas template. Manchester City’s home kit, again showing what a difference socks make to a kit, the navy socks really making the kit stand out especially when compared to the white socks (worn away at Shakhtar Donetsk).

Group G

Group G was another group that saw minimal change in the kits used, with only 7 of the possible 12 kits used. Holders Real Madrid wore their famous all white home kit in all games, with the other three teams only needing to use change kits twice in their six games. Group G was also one of the groups that had four different kit manufactures from the four team represented (Group C and Group D being the others).

Group H

Finally Group H, another group which sees three of the teams kits being manufactured by Adidas. This group saw the least amount of changes, with each team wearing their home shirt for 5 out 6 games. Manchester United who traditionally wear white shorts and socks with their home shirt in European games but like Tottenham do have a shirt that gradients in colour this season, looked to also stick to their tradition in the first game of the group, wearing Red/White/White combo against Young Boys but for the rest of the group return the Red/Black/Red kit they have been using this season (apart from final game at Valencia where white socks were worn).

Kit Data

Looking at some of the data of kits worn, we can see the following.

Home Kits – 73% (67% Full Home, 6% variation)
Away Kits – 14% (12% Full Away, 2% variation)
3rd Kits – 13% (10% Full 3rd, 3% variation)

Manufacturers in Champions League

Nike – 12
Adidas – 7
Umbro – 3
Macron – 2
New Balance – 2
Puma – 2
Capelli – 1
Kappa – 1
Lotto – 1
Under Armour – 1

Match Week breakdown, who wore what against whom

Match Week 1

Match Week 2

Match Week 3

Match Week 4

Match Week 5

Match Week 6

I’ll end the post by sharing with you my favourite kit worn so far in 2018/19 Champions League. It is PSV Eindhoven’s 3rd kit worn at Wembley against Tottenham in Match Week 4.

Let me know your kit highlights from Champions League in the comments or via Twitter @Kit_Geek

Cup Winners’ Cup Finals (1961 – 1999)

Nov 22, 2018Dec 10, 2024Posted in GeneralTagged Cup Winners Cup, CWC, Europe, Football, Football Kits, Kit Geek, Kit Log, Kits, UEFALeave a comment

This is probably a post for those people over the age of 30 or those football fans who like their history, as the wonder that is Cup Winners’ Cup was a European Cup competition that was held for the last time 20 years ago this season.

The competition was first contested in the 1960/61 season and was a club competition for the domestic cup winners across Europe to compete in a straight knock out competition, with ties played over two legs. In the early years of the competition this played over four round (1st Round, Quarter Finals, Semi Finals and Final) and later years saw an introduction of 2nd Round as well, so has always been a smaller European Competition compared to the two we see today.

From 1972, The winners of the CWC would then play the winners of the European Cup in the European Super Cup, this would be the case until the end of the competition in 1999, where the Domestic Cup winners were entered into the UEFA Cup (Europa League).

Here we are looking at the finalists and what they wore in that final, all of the finals (apart from the first Final between Glasgow Rangers and Fiorentina) was played as a single game at a neutral venue.

Breaking down the winners, this was a competition that provided and variety of Winners from a number of countries with some Clubs we would come to expect to see wining European Competitions and some that you would not and also those that no longer exist in the form that they won the competition in.

8, England (Chelsea x2, Arsenal, West Ham United, Tottenham Hotspur, Manchester City, Manchester United, Everton)
7, Spain (Barcelona x4, Atletico Madrid, Valencia, Real Zaragoza)
7, Italy (AC Milan x2, Fiorentina, Sampdoria, Parma, Juventus, Lazio)
4, West Germany / Germany (Hamburg, Borussia Dortmund, Bayern Munich, Werder Bremen)
3, Belgium (Anderlecht x2, Mechelen)
3, Soviet Union (Dynamo Kyiv x2, Dinamo Tbilisi)
2, Scotland (Glasgow Rangers, Aberdeen)
1, East Germany (FC Magdeburg)
1, France (Paris Saint-Germain)
1, Netherlands (Ajax Amsterdam)
1, Portugal (Sporting Clube de Portugal)
1, Czechoslovakia (Slovan Bratislava)

Kit highlights:

As always, I want to take a little bit of time here to look at some kit highlights in these finals:

Anderlecht v West Ham United – 1976

The 1976 final between Anderlecht and West Ham United, Admiral had begun their kit revolution and this design worn by West Ham was one their classic kits and with the white / purple combination of Anderlecht made from a kit show in this final.

Hamburg SV – 1977:

Hamburg in Pink, but its not just about the pink shirt, navy Shorts and blue socks. A combination on paper that should not work but in reality for me, looks fantastic… flappy collar, Adidas stripes…. a beautiful kit, top to bottom.

Juventus – 1984

Juventus, always famous for their black and white stripes but also for me this striking away kit, yellow and blue, again the collar just works with this kit but a classic combo for Juventus away colours that is a regular in the away kit portfolio for Italian Giants.

Barcelona v Sampdoria – 1989:

Another final, where both kits just work together… here at a time where is common place for both clubs to wear their away kits, both of these are classic kits of time. A sky blue Barcelona kit, with single red/blue stripes off centre and the Sampdoria kit a similar off centre stripe with their famous red/white/blue colours shifting to this position. What is not love here with these two kits.

Barcelona v PSG – 1997

Another final where the kits complement each other, both teams in their away kit of the time, Barcelona wearing their Kappa kit, which has a lot going on, flashes for red and blue within the Jade / Aqua base colour and PSG in their classic white away kit, broad red centre stripe highlighted with Navy blue.

What are thoughts of The Cup Winners’ Cup and the kits worn at the final, let me know on Twitter (@Kit_Geek) or in the comments below.

Revamping the Champions League

Sep 12, 2018Dec 12, 2023Posted in GeneralTagged Champions League, Europe, Football, UCL, UEFALeave a comment

First things first, this post is not about Football Kits….

With news coming out this week about UEFA considering a third European Competition being introduced in 2021 to be played alongside the Champions League and Europa League…. the return of the Cup Winners Cup, who knows??

Read more about this announcement here – BBC Sport report

A friend then reminded me of a tweet a sent out in October 2017 about an idea that I had about revamping the Champions League.

When I was a child, I used to invent these kind of Super Leagues, creating squads from the best of the Football League, Scottish Premier and European Giants, well the one’s I knew about thanks to Match and Shoot Magazines in years of 1987 to 1990.

This memory got me thinking about how I could use that format and revamp the Champions League’s current format….. yep, I was that bored at some point that I spent time devising and working a competition, just to see if I could make it work.

So, for your pleasure, I give you my thoughts on a piece of paper in a little more detail.

PRE-QUALIFYING ROUNDS – JULY to AUGUST

This part of the competition would not change, there would continue to be four pre-qualifying rounds, with the same knock out format. With clubs joining the competition at each round depending on the Country’s Coefficient.

ROUND 1, ELIMINATION ROUND – SEPTEMBER

After Pre-qualifying we are now left with 32 teams (as we are now) but this is the first change in the Competition. Currently these teams are split into 4 pots and then drawn into 8 groups of 4 teams, in this vision Pots 1 and 2 are combined, so league winners of the major leagues, holders and the highest ranked teams will be make the 16 teams in “Pot 1”, the remaining 16 teams would then make up “Pot 2”.

For an example, lets take the 4 pots from this year’s Competition and show you what this would look like with Pot 1 and Pot 2 making the new “POT 1” and Pots 3 and 4 making the new “POT 2”:

These teams would then be drawn into 16 ties (POT 2 v POT 1), this would be a two legged tie and would also be drawn so that teams from the same country could not be drawn against each other.

Using this year’s competition again as an example, the draw would look like this (and yes I did recreate the draw myself with 16 bits of paper, I was going to Kinder Eggs in the place of balls but thought would be a step too far):

In the draw above, the teams from POT B were drawn first to complete that half of the draw and then the teams in POT A.

In the 2nd tie Monaco were drawn from POT B, then PSG drawn from POT A, as they are both from France they cannot play each other in this round, so PSG moved down to the next available tie (Tie 3), where they play Liverpool.

Games would be played in September, in the week after the International Break and the following week.

ROUND 2, THE LEAGUES – OCTOBER TO APRIL

This is where my competition has its biggest change, the 16 remaining teams will then be drawn into 2 leagues (LEAGUE A and LEAGUE B), there will be no more than 2 clubs from the same country in each league.

Again basing this on the above draw from the qualified teams from the 2018/19 competition and not being particularly scientific in terms of the results, apologies to any supporters of clubs that I have just eliminated from the competition, we have the following leagues drawn out of the hat.

The Leagues are drawn alternatively, so first club drawn goes into League 1, the second in League 2, the third into League 1 and so on…. if a club is drawn into a League where there are already two clubs from their country they move to the next league.

So there we have it, our 2 Leagues….. now, that gives us 14 fixtures to play between October and March (each team playing each other Home and Away).

Looking at the current European Calendar, there are five rounds of fixtures in Between October and early December. Last 16 games are played over four match days in February and March, then the first leg of Quarter Final is played in first week of April. So currently there is ten potential match days already in the calendar, therefore another four weeks are needed…. again looking at this seasons competition the following weeks could be used:

QUARTER FINAL – APRIL

We now are in early April and the leagues have finished and we see the return of the knock out rounds.

The Quarter Finals are sorted by the top four teams in each league moving forward, with 1st Place in “League 1” playing 4th Place in “League 2” and so on, initially in my little sketch I had this as a two legged tie but on reflection, a one off tie with the teams finishing in first and second place playing at home may work better and be a reward for those teams finishing in the top 2 of their respective leagues:

There is no restriction on clubs from the same country playing each other, as we have now at the Quarter Final stage of Champions League.

SEMI FINAL – MAY

Semi Final time and this time two legged games are back, the ties are sorted by the Quarter Final Fixtures, therefore potential keeping the teams finishing top of their groups apart at this stage.

Games will be played over two weeks in May and leave us with our two finalists.

FINAL – JUNE

The final, played as has been seen over the the recent years on the first Saturday of June at a Neutral Venue in a one off fixture.

There are of course plenty of issues and questions that this would raise, its not the perfect idea, if it was then I’d have a job at UEFA somewhere and not rambling on like this, but this gives what many of the clubs and fans are looking for with more fixtures where the “Big” European clubs are playing against each other and I would imagine the Television rights that something like this would generate would be of the likes we have not seen yet in Football.

For balance, some of the issues needing addressing:

Additional Game Weeks needed
What would happen to clubs knocked at Round 1
Impact on Domestic Leagues
International Breaks are taken into account but would they be impacted
Player burn out
It would take a minimum of 20 games to reach the final, from 13 games now
And so many more

Well that’s my idea, yes expanded from initial thoughts on a piece of paper and if you have got this far I thank you for taking the time to read through this, I have spent far too much thinking about this competition but I’ll be honest, I have quite enjoyed it!!

Let me know your thoughts and if you have any ideas for your own competition.