Colours by Country:

England vs. Brazil

The question of whether the games between England and Brazil warranted a change of colours, must have caused quite a dilemma over the years. For the first twenty years of meetings, it was only deemed necessary to change England's shorts and socks, but for the next 25 years, full change-kits were worn in all of their encounters, apart from in a couple of games.

To begin with, it is probably fortunate that Brazil lost to Uruguay in the 1950 World Cup. At the time, they wore an all-white kit, not the canary yellow and blue outfit that they have become synonymous with. White, clearly, would have caused a colour clash with England's white shirts, but in 1953, the Confederação Brasileira de Futebol held a national competition to decide on a new kit, and this allowed them to discard the all-white in favour of a strip that matched the Brazilian national flag.

England did not meet Brazil for the first time until 1956. This was a period when England's socks would normally be black. Brazil had brought both their home and away kits with them, their blue change colours to be worn if it was a cold day. England, for some reason, decided to wear red socks, as they would usually do against a team in blue (or black) socks. Brazil, however, only ever wore white socks at this time. In the event, Brazil wore their home kit, with England's Umbro white shirts and Brazil's yellow, distinctive enough, especially in contrast to England's dark navy shorts and red socks, as opposed to Brazil's much lighter blue shorts and white socks. The only other change was to England's goalkeeper, Reg Matthews, who had to change from the usual yellow jersey into a blue one.

By the time of the 1958 World Cup, England's socks had become red as first choice, so again, there was no real problem, but when England visited Brazil for the first time, the following year, it was decided that England should change to white shorts, to avoid any possibility that there would be a clash with their opponents' colours.

In the 1962 World Cup quarter-final, England, now in Bukta kits, switched to all white against Brazil, the red socks having been reduced to the role of spare pairs, though this did not prompt Brazil to change from their white socks.

At Wembley, in 1963, England wore red socks, knowing that Brazil were going to wear white, and for their next three meetings, the first two of which were in Brazil, England switched to all-white. They had also switched back to Umbro by the time of the 1969 fixture.

For the 1970 World Cup tournament, just as in the previous year's end-of-season tour, England had decided to wear all-white, believing that it would help to control their body temperatures better in the Mexican heat and altitude, and this decision finally prompted Brazil to make a first change to their kit in eight meetings with England, though it was only to wear a rather unflattering pair of grey socks. This, of course, did not stop their relentless charge to the Jules Rimet Trophy.

England's Colours Against Brazil 1956-70
No.	Date	Shirts	Shorts	Socks	Gk	Venue	Shirts	Shorts	Socks
303	9 May 1956					Empire Stadium, Wembley, London
323	11 June 1958					Nya Ullevi Stadion, Göteborg, Sweden
331	13 May 1959					Estádio Jornalista Mário Filho, Maracanã, Rio de Janeiro
362	10 June 1962					Estadio Sausalito, Viña del Mar, Chile
368	8 May 1963					Empire Stadium, Wembley, London
380	30 May 1964					Estádio Jornalista Mário Filho, Maracanã, Rio de Janeiro
435	12 June 1969					Estádio Jornalista Mário Filho, Maracanã, Rio de Janeiro
446	7 June 1970					Estadio Jalisco, Guadalajara, Mexico

By 1976, England were wearing Admiral kits and came face to face with Brazil at the American Bicentennial Tournament. Once again, England swapped their blue shorts for white, a pair yet to be unveiled as part of their new red change kit. Compared to the five previous occasions when they had donned white shorts against Brazil, this was probably the closest in shade that their first-choice blue shorts had been to Brazil's lighter blue. To top the outfit off in a most unexpected fashion, a pair of what has been described elsewhere on this website as 'ghastly pale yellow socks' was worn. This was no error, either, as England wore an all plain-yellow kit against Team America in the final game of the tournament. The game against Brazil also introduced a new Admiral blue change shirt for Ray Clemence to wear in England's goal.

The following year saw England back in Rio de Janeiro and this time, their choice of socks was almost certainly an error. For the first time in ten meetings with Brazil, England decided to wear their red change kit, which was to appear for every game of their South American tour. However, unlike the two remaining games in Argentina and Uruguay, England did not wear the red socks. Instead, they turned out in a navy-blue pair which, we can only assume, was borrowed from their hosts. Curiously, Brazil wore blue socks for the first time, four days later, against West Germany in the same stadium.

Having made their decision to switch to red shirts against Brazil, England did the same in their next two meetings, still with no sign of their opponents switching from their famous yellow shirts, or even any part of their traditional colours. Perhaps, they were just too famous to be asked to wear an alternative kit.

In 1978, at Wembley, Brazil revealed the name of their kit manufacturer for the first time against England, as the adidas logo appeared on their shirts and shorts. Meanwhile, Joe Corrigan, in England's goal managed to pair the blue Admiral shirt with the black shorts and socks from the first-choice yellow kit, an unlikely combination given that these were edged with yellow, whilst the shirt had red and white piping.

This possibly prompted the FA and Admiral to change the blue shirt and, by the time that Brazil were next back in town, in 1981, it had undergone an overhaul and was now edged with yellow and black to fit better with the black shorts and socks. It was also a lighter shade of blue.

England were back in Umbro in 1984 and John Barnes raced through the Brazilian defence to score his wonder goal, with England having once again reverted to white shirts and shorts, with red socks, a combination not worn in any international since the 1959 trip to Rio. Nike would use the inspiration from this game to produce an England kit in 2016. This match also heralded a switch from the endless succession of blue goalkeeper shirts, with Peter Shilton decked out in grey, with black sleeves.

The 1987 Rous Cup fixture was unique in Anglo-Brazilian meetings, as both teams stuck to their first-choice kits, which meant that only the shirts were distinctly different colours, though England were now back in darker shorts. This was followed, in 1990, by a momentous event. Brazil marched out at Wembley in their second-choice blue kit. It was the first time ever that they had conceded colours against England and this was their 15th meeting. Brazil were possibly prompted to change because their shorts were now a darker blue, more of a royal blue, bringing them closer to England's, though still lighter in shade than the home team's dark navy.

Six more fixtures followed in which one or other of the teams wore their second-choice kit. In the 1995 Umbro Cup, at Wembley, England wore an all-red strip, described as 'wine-coloured'. Two years later, with echoes of 1966, England managed to lift a trophy in their red kit, despite losing to Brazil in Le Tournoi, in Paris.

Another dramatic World Cup encounter took place in Japan in 2002, when a blue-shirted Ronaldinho broke English hearts with a long-range lob over David Seaman as Brazil marched on to their record fifth World Cup.

For the new Wembley's first international, in 2007, the teams reverted to the old days of wearing their first choice with minor concessions and this time, Brazil wore a pair of blue socks to match their shorts. They repeated this combination in 2009, in Qatar, and again, back at Wembley, in 2013, as England appeared in all white against their old rivals. Four months later, England launched a new red kit in Rio, allowing Brazil to revert to their traditional white socks.

In 2017, both sides were able to wear their first-choice kits without any colour clash, for the first time. This was due to England wearing white shorts and red socks in their Nike design, inspired by the 1984 Rio victory.

Brazil wore their change kit for only the second time at Wembley, and for the first time in 34 years, in 2024, after six visits in yellow shirts, but the blue change shirts were un unusual dark- and light-blue pin-striped combination that gave an overall effect of a lighter blue than in previous meetings.

England's Colours Against Brazil 1976-2013

No.

Date

Shirts

Shorts

Socks

GK

Venue

Shirts

Shorts

Socks

501

23 May 1976

The Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, Exposition Park, Los Angeles, U.S.A.

512

8 June 1977

Estádio Jornalista Mário Filho, Maracanã, Rio de Janeiro

519

19 April 1978

Wembley Stadium, Wembley, London

552

12 May 1981

Wembley Stadium, Wembley, London

590

10 June 1984

Estádio Jornalista Mário Filho, Maracanã, Rio de Janeiro

625

19 May 1987

Wembley Stadium, Wembley, London

653

28 March 1990

Wembley Stadium, Wembley, London

684

17 May 1992

Wembley Stadium, Wembley, London

698

13 June 1993

Robert F. Kennedy Stadium, Washington, D.C., U.S.A.

713

11 June 1995

Wembley Stadium, Wembley, London

737

10 June 1997

Parc des Princes, Paris, France

766

27 May 2000

Wembley Stadium, Wembley, London

795

21 June 2002

Shizuoka Stadium Ecopa, Shizuoka, Japan

852

1 June 2007

The National Stadium, Wembley, London

881

14 November 2009

Khalifi International Stadium, Doha, Qatar

916

6 February 2013

The National Stadium, Wembley, London

920

2 June 2013

Estádio Jornalista Mário Filho, Maracanã, Rio de Janeiro

974

14 November 2017

The National Stadium, Wembley, London

1052

23 March 2024

The National Stadium, Wembley, London

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GI