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Goalkeepers' Uniform:

1996 Red

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England's Uniforms


 

Thanks to Steve Halliwell

England's Away Uniform
March-November

1994 Away Uniform
1995 Home Uniform
1997 Home Uniform
1997 Away Uniform
 
 

P 3 W 2 D 1 L 0 F 4:A 1
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Description

Two-tone indigo-blue wide-striped short-sleeved shirt. Each wide stripe edged with a thin white stripe. Lighter tone achieved with very fine white stripes.  Shadow pattern of thick diagonal stripes rising from left to right. Indigo blue winged collar, with very fine white hoops, edged with thick white stripe and adjacent thin red-and-navy-blue stripe. Large white curved insert beneath the neck, split down the middle, with a white button fastening via a loop of white material attached to the left side of the insert. Embroidered emblem, with white margin, on darker centre-chest stripe, with white registered trademark underneath left-hand side of emblem, 'ENGLAND' in capitalised white lettering below it and 'UMBRO' in large capitalised white lettering above it. White number, with red border, on back and in the centre of the chest, beneath the emblem, in same font as previous England shirts.

Two-tone indigo blue shorts, with white drawstring and shadow pattern of thick diagonal stripes rising from left to right, as per shirt. Darker centre stripe edged on each side with a thin diagonal navy-blue-and-red stripe, and adjacent thick diagonal white stripe, edging the lighter seam-stripes, containing very fine white stripes. Seam-stripes are wider at the hem than the waistband. Darker rear of shorts. 'UMBRO' in large capitalised white lettering on left thigh of seam-stripe. Embroidered emblem on right thigh of seam-stripe, with white registered trademark underneath left-hand side of emblem and 'ENGLAND' in capitalised white lettering below it. White number, with red border in the same font as on the shirt, but with the inner sections of the numbers 6, 8, 9 and 0 filled in with red, above the emblem on right thigh, overlaying diagonal stripes when number includes two digits.

Indigo blue socks of darker tone, with thick navy-blue hoop across tops and two thick white hoops around calf, edged with thin navy-blue hoops and with 'UMBRO' in capitalised white lettering in-between.

Variations
  • A long-sleeved version of the shirt was also worn. The cuffs were indigo blue, with a thin navy-blue-and-red stripe, and adjacent thick white stripe at the beginning of the cuffs.
  • For the game against Bulgaria, the number on the reverse was red, with a navy-blue border, in the same font as for the other games. There were no numbers on the front of the shirt or on the shorts.

  • Against Germany, the player's surname was printed in an arc in capitalised white lettering, with a red border, above the number on the reverse of the shirt, in the same font as on the white shirt (pink characters were unused).

  • England had logos sewn on to the upper sleeves against Germany. The 'Euro '96' tournament logo was on the right arm and the UEFA Fair Play logo was on the left arm.
Most Appearances

3 - Paul Gascoigne, Paul Ince, Teddy Sheringham, Gareth Southgate

  • 21 players wore this shirt in the three matches.

  • Ince and Southgate played all 300 minutes in the kit. Gascoigne and Sheringham were both substituted against Bulgaria.

  • Robbie Fowler was the only player to make his debut in the shirt, as a substitute against Bulgaria, the first of 26 appearances.

  • Two players made their last England appearances in the shirt. Steve Howey appeared for the fourth time, whilst David Platt's final act as an international, on his 62nd appearance, was to slot home England's second penalty in the shootout against Germany.

Top Scorers

2 - Les Ferdinand

1 - Alan Shearer, Teddy Sheringham

  • Ferdinand's goals were his last two in England colours, and were scored for two different coaches (Venables and Hoddle). His previous international goal was under the managership of Graham Taylor.

  • Shearer's goal was his fifth of the European Championship, confirming him as the tournament's top scorer, two goals clear of the next highest.

  • Shearer and Sheringham also scored in the penalty shootout against Germany.

Captains

2 - Tony Adams

1 - Stuart Pearce

  • Adams led England throughout the Euro '96 tournament.

  • Though Alan Shearer was appointed captain when Glenn Hoddle took over as coach, he missed the game in Georgia through injury and Adams stepped in once more.

 

Although, as the Football Association insisted, this Umbro jersey was indigo blue, it appeared a particularly dull grey to spectators watching from a distance and to television viewers, and it proved highly unpopular with England fans.  Fortunately, England wore it in only three official international matches. 

But it will be long remembered because its second appearance came in the European Championship semi-final when Germany eliminated England on penalty kicks. Some superstitious fans even blamed the colours for England's failure to advance to the final. England fans overwhelmingly preferred red as the alternative shirt colour, and the Football Association responded by reverting back to red change kits as a result.

The shirt continued to bear the manufacturer's name in large, capitalised letters above the three-lions emblem in the middle of the shirt, although now the team name, England, also appeared in smaller capitalised letters below the emblem, perhaps to dispel the impression it might give a stranger to football that it was the Umbro team's jersey. It was the first time that the team name had appeared on the shirt itself.

Although the semi-final ended in tears, it could have been a glorious night in England's history. Paul Gascoigne was literally inches away from getting a touch to Alan Shearer's cross that would have undoubtedly sealed England's place in the final, due to the 'golden goal' rule being in operation.

One final appearance for the kit came in the following season's World Cup qualifying campaign, when England secured a comfortable three points in Georgia. Their confidence was about to be tested by Italy in the New Year, however...

Matches in which England wore the 1996 Away Blue Uniform
Season 1995-96

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Terry Venables

Friendly match
718 27 March 1996 - England 1 Bulgaria 0 [1-0]
Wembley Stadium, Wembley, London (29,708)
Ferdinand HW
European Championship Finals in England
726 26 June 1996 - Germany 1 England 1 [1-1]ᴭᵀ 6-5 on penalty-kicks
Wembley Stadium, Wembley, London (75,862)
Kuntz
Shearer
HD
Season 1996-97

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Glenn Hoddle

World Cup preliminary match
729 9 November 1996 - Georgia 0 England 2 [0-2]
Boris Paichadze National Stadium, Didube-Chugureti, Tbilisi (48,000)
Sheringham, Ferdinand AW
Worn by 21 Players
Tony Adams Darren Anderton1 David Batty1 David Beckham1
Sol Campbell  Les Ferdinand Robbie Fowler Paul Gascoigne3
Andy Hinchcliffe1 Steve Howey Paul Ince3 Rob Lee
Steve McManaman1 Gary Neville Stuart Pearce David Platt
Alan Shearer Teddy Sheringham3 Gareth Southgate Steve Stone
Ian Wright      

It was also worn on the bench by unused substitutes, Mark Wright (v. Bulgaria), Nick Barmby and Phil Neville (v. Germany) and Matthew Le Tissier (v. Georgia).

1/3 indicates the players that wore the long-sleeved version and the number of matches in which they wore it (Anderton, Batty, Beckham, Hinchcliffe, Ince and Sheringham only wore the long-sleeved version of this shirt). Gascoigne started all three matches in the short-sleeved version and changed to long sleeves at half-time on each occasion.

The youth teams wore the same design, except that each wore an embroidered scroll below the emblem, within which YOUTH was displayed, in white. England's Under-21 team wore an identical kit to the full international team, including numbers on the front of the shirt and on the shorts, in the 1996-97 season.

England's Record wearing the 1996 Blue Shirt
Type P W D L F A GD FTS CS FAv AAv Pts % W/L
Home 2 1 1 0 2 1 +1 0 1 1.00 0.50 75.0 +1
Away 1 1 0 0 2 0 +2 0 1 2.00 0.00 100.0 +1
Total 3 2 1 0 4 1 +3 0 2 1.333 0.333 83.3 +2

  

A shirt believed to have been worn by Jason Wilcox in the unofficial game against Hong Kong Golden Select on 26 May 1996. What was unusual about this game was that the numbers 6, 8, 9 and 0 had their inner sections coloured red. These were changed to show the background of the shirt for the European Championship finals, but only on the shirts. The smaller numbers on the shorts were filled in as per the shirt numbers in Hong Kong.

 From Richard Clarke's 'Three Lions - England Match Worn Shirts' Facebook Collection.

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JB/PY/CG/GI