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Not worn in play |
Description |
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Pale blue short-sleeved
shirt, with multi-layered shadow pattern, including large striped square
rhombus shapes, some with the right-hand side blank, small square
rhombus shapes, some blank and some dark, and long thin striped panels.
Navy blue winged collar, with small white stripes in a strip near the
outer edge. Large navy blue upside-down triangular insert beneath the
neck, split down the middle, with a navy blue button fastening via a
loop of navy blue material attached to the left side of the insert. Navy
blue diagonal stripes rising from left to right in a white strip near
the edge of the sleeves, with two navy blue concentric diamonds after
every fourth stripe. Embroidered emblem on left breast, with
'FIFA WORLD CUP' and then 'ITALY '90'
centralised in capitalised navy blue lettering underneath.
Two embroidered navy blue concentric diamonds on right breast, with 'umbro' in navy blue
lower-case lettering underneath. Navy blue numbers on reverse, in the same
font as on the previous Umbro England shirts, with a pale blue
border, outlined in navy blue.
Pale blue shorts, with white
drawstring. A white strip comprising upper third of seams, with navy
blue diagonal stripes rising from right to left, with two navy blue
concentric diamonds after every fourth stripe. Large white triangle,
overlapped with a slightly lower large navy blue triangle, underneath
navy blue stripes. Two
embroidered navy blue concentric diamonds on left thigh, with 'umbro' in
navy blue
lower-case lettering underneath. Embroidered emblem
on right thigh.
Pale blue socks, with
navy blue turnover, three white lions on each. |
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This sky blue shirt, the
1990
alternative jersey, modified to include the World Cup insignia, was issued to the
England squad but never worn in match play. England wore the
1990
white home shirt in all seven of their matches in Italy.
Yet again, a blue uniform was
surplus to requirements. It seems only England were prepared to take three
choices of kit to the World Cup finals, when they were only instructed to
register two. An indication of its marketable value, however, came in the
weeks leading up to the tournament. The England squad recorded a song (World
in Motion), with the band, New Order, whose lead singer, Bernard Sumner, was
filmed in the promotional video for the single in May, wearing this new blue
shirt (without the World Cup lettering). The single shot to the top of the
UK charts and the shirt got plenty of subliminal advertising, no doubt
prompting replica sales to rise during a successful tournament for England.
This design did
actually appear, the following year, for one international match, without
the World Cup lettering, where the white band across the chest of Turkey's red
shirts, gave the FA an excuse to replace the white home shirt with the
blue.
The first two photos at the top left of the page
are of the shirt issued to Neil Webb. They appear by kind permission of the National Football Shirt Collection (England
Match Shirts), also part of
the Neville Evans Collection (curator Simon Shakeshaft).
Next picture along (the number seventeen shirt)
is signed by the whole squad and
it was issued to David Platt. This shirt is part of
Richard Clarke's Morrell Collection. |
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CG/PY/JB
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