England's Away Uniform 2004 to 2006

Uniform shirt photo supplied by Josh Benn

Notes

England's extremely attractive 2004 red away strip made its appearance in accord with the regular cycle, under which home and away strips are changed in alternate years so that a new shirt appears every year.  Manufactured by Umbro, it made its debut in the 1-0 friendly match loss to  Sweden in Gothenburg on 31 March 2004.   The new jersey was worn in one match at the European Championship 2004 final tournament, the 4-2 group stage victory against Croatia.

The shirt is the same shade of red England wore in the World Cup 1966 final match against West Germany and features the same rounded neck.  Like the red shirt of the 1960s and early 1970s, it lacks any trace of blue outside the three-lions emblem.  It is made of state-of-the-art materials, but, thankfully, does not replicate the figure-hugging design recently sported by Italy's national football team and England's World Cup-winning rugby side.  

Most notable on the shirt are the St. George's crosses on the shoulders, which are the only embellishments on a very clean design, spoiled only by the Umbro diamond, which becomes ever-more prominent as each new Umbro jersey appears, and the gold star marking England's sole World Cup victory.  The star, which made its relatively unobtrusive debut on the sleeve of the 2003 home white uniform, has been moved to a spot above the three-lions emblem, in conformity with the practice adopted by other national sides that have won the World Cup. 

The Brazilian federation started the gold stars fad as a constant reminder to the rest of the world that Brazil has won more World Cups than anyone else. Why Umbro and the Football Association should cater to this Brazilian (and later Italian and German) triumphalism by putting a single star on our shirt--a measure of our comparative inferiority in winning only one World Cup and that on home soil--is mystifying. Those who watch the game know what the count is without this unnecessary bit of goo-gaw.  We should ignore the stars, as we always have; they have nothing to do with the present-day team.  Just because other leading national teams do certain things doesn't mean we have to copy them. We shouldn't feel the need to boast about our past accomplishments just because others feel the need to do so.  The three lions emblem, the sole adornment on England's shirt for more than a century, is sufficient symbol of our team's grand tradition.

For the first time, the red shirt features silver player names and numbers on its back rather than the usual white.  Silver is not an England colour, and we do not know why white, an England team colour since the very first international match in 1872, was not good enough for Umbro and the Football Association.  Change for change's sake is not acceptable when it comes to England's shirt; tradition should be observed, not violated.  But we expect such unnecessary tinkering will continue; apparently it is deemed necessary to boost replica kit sales.

The shorts, a white so glossy it is almost silvery, bear a thick red strip down their sides in a shape approaching a cross, a small three-lions emblem on their right front and, of course, the inevitable Umbro logo on their left front.

The stockings are plain red, marred only by the Umbro diamond along with two white bars at lower calf level.  Why the strip manufacturer is not satisfied by the single, yet very prominent Umbro diamond on the shirt and insists on placing it in a highly visible spot on every item in the kit is beyond us.  We suppose Umbro wants to improve the chances that its insignia appears in every shot of an England player, no matter the camera angle.  Those who watch England's matches or browse through England player photographs and thus those who are even remotely likely to buy shirt replicas already know who manufactures the strip.  This kind of advertising on the England kit is unnecessary and unseemly; it represents corporate ambition run amok. 

We recognise that Umbro's strip is preferable to the assembly-line uniforms Nike produces for many of the world's other national sides  The fact that Umbro produces the world's best national team kit does not, however, exempt it from criticism. - PY

For the third successive European Championship, England wore logos on each arm, the UEFA Fair Play badge on the left arm and the Euro 2004 tournament logo on the right. UEFA's policy of sewn-on badges, differed to that of FIFA's for the World Cup, where the 2002 tournament logo appeared to be printed on the right arm.

For the game with Azerbaijan, 13 October 2004, England wore the FIFA WORLD CUP GERMANY 2006 logo on the upper right arm.

The Netherlands game at Villa Park, was the first occasion in England's history when a slogan appeared on the shirt. NO TO RACISM was displayed in white across the chest and the LET'S KEEP RACISM OUT OF FOOTBALL logo appeared on the right arm.  For one game only, the match fixture and date, normally positioned where the slogan appeared on the red shirt, were removed.

 

Matches in Which England Wore the 2004 Away Red Uniform
No.	Date	Opposition	Venue	Type	F	A	Result	H.T.
811	31-Mar-2004	Sweden	Nya Ullevi Stadion, Göteborg	F	0	1	AL	[0-0]
812	01-Jun-2004	Japan	City of Manchester Stadium, Eastlands, Manchester	F	1	1	HD	[1-0]
813	05-Jun-2004	Iceland	City of Manchester Stadium, Eastlands, Manchester	F	6	1	HW	[3-1]
816	21-Jun-2004	Croatia	Estádio da Luz, Lisboa, Portugal	ECF	4	2	NW	[2-1]
818	18-Aug-2004	Ukraine	St James' Park, Newcastle-upon-Tyne	F	3	0	HW	[1-0]
820	08-Sep-2004	Poland	Stadion Śląski, Chorzów	WCP	2	1	AW	[1-0]
822	13-Oct-2004	Azerbaijan	Tofig Bakhramov Stadium, Baku	WCP	1	0	AW	[1-0]
824	09-Feb-2005	Netherlands	Villa Park, Birmingham	F	0	0	HD	[0-0]

Uniforms Index

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JB/PY/CG