A&H

Kit clash

E

Egg man

Member
Level 5 Referee
Hi advice needed please.

I have up coming fixture which has just been confrimed I will have a mentor at.

I've have email from both team that there is a kit clash.

Home Team play in
Colours: Red / White striped shirts, Black shorts and Black socks

Away Team
Colours
1st kit - black and blue shirts, black shorts and socks
2nd kit- red/orange shirts, red shorts and socks

The Away team are more than happy to mix kits so as the referee, please provide us with what you deem acceptable in terms of a colour combination to avoid any clashes for you whilst officiating the match?

I was thinking on asking Away team to wear
Black & blue shirts, black shorts and red socks.

What your thoughts ?
 
The Referee Store
Away to change if there is a clash. I can't have both team wearing black shorts and Black socks.
 
socal lurker said:
Need to see the actual shirts--the second kit might be just fine, and it might not.
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Unfortunately I'm probably going to get that luxury.

So I'm leaning towards them just changing their socks to red. At least then I can tell them part in tackles.
 
Egg man said:
Hi advice needed please.

I have up coming fixture which has just been confrimed I will have a mentor at.

I've have email from both team that there is a kit clash.

Home Team play in
Colours: Red / White striped shirts, Black shorts and Black socks

Away Team
Colours
1st kit - black and blue shirts, black shorts and socks
2nd kit- red/orange shirts, red shorts and socks

The Away team are more than happy to mix kits so as the referee, please provide us with what you deem acceptable in terms of a colour combination to avoid any clashes for you whilst officiating the match?

I was thinking on asking Away team to wear
Black & blue shirts, black shorts and red socks.

What your thoughts ?
Click to expand...
If it's grass roots football (Youth or Sunday League etc. etc.), the important thing is to get the game played. Teams at that level can't just go out and buy 20 pairs of shorts/socks. I once allowed a Sunday League Lower Division Cup Final to be played on the basis of a shorts/socks clash
As long as the shirts are radically different, perhaps clear it with the League (which is what I did) and get the game played. Otherwise, the only alternative is for the fixture to be expunged; and I'd argue that's madness
 
I agree it would be madness not to play the Fixture.

I have advised the away team that if they could wear their red socks and not to worry about the clash of shorts.

At least this way i will be able to identify them in a tackle or have a better idea of which team the ball came off last when going out of play.
 
Some leagues advise Home team to bring bibs and have away team wear bibs or vice versa
 
I had one last night, both sides dark blue socks and shorts, dark blue shirt backs - only the front of the shirts was light blue stripes vs dark blue.

And this was high enough that the away team should have a second set. There were no sock options, so we agreed to get the away team in yellow bibs. Better than nothing.

Same Sock colour was annoying and this is one area teams could be educated and the laws stiffened at least locally.

The hassle with bibs is that numbers are hard. No biggie with a goalscorer but annoying tracking cumulative fouls and cards.

Luckily I didn’t have many cards.

As refs we have to find ways to mitigate these problems. So, I quickly reminded away before the match they might have to help me with the numbers - nice reply “not reds though, right?” After the first few fouls, I scanned the distinguishing features of the repeat offender - one of the few with a legible number on his shorts. And, before second half kick off, I found the yellow carded player on the field, and tried to mentally note his boots - I also said to him something like “it’s important I can recognize you” - and this probably had a positive side effect.

Anyway, I only had 3 yellows, so I got away with this one. TBH the third team had a blinder. We were so good, I surprised myself, but that’s another story!


It’s probably massively underestimated how detrimental same sock colour is to refereeing.
 
santa sangria said:
It’s probably massively underestimated how detrimental same sock colour is to refereeing.
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fortunately I was at the Board meeting for our AYSO region when the were discussing just get black socks for all teams. (The idea was that it’s a pain when kids lose socks and they want to replace them.) I was able to convince them it was a really bad idea for the competitive levels of play.
 
This is interesting as am not sure evety ref at grass roots gets the advance notice, for every game.
be thankful there is the luxury of the information.

the tops seem obv , leaving the socks to sort.

Should you have simply turned up half hr before ko and both had black shorts, black socks, am ( hopeful) 9 out of 10 refs would simply just get on with it

disclaimer, its unfair to be too critical of referee number ten, as, in law, they would be doing no wrong.



that said, armed with the info, my reply would be, " away team black/blue, ideally red shorts but i will accept black, red socks please"


update, if St Mirren and Celtic can play on live tv in the kits they did today , just refer the mentor to thus
 
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I've been on the verge of calling a game off for clashing socks, but it certainly didn't help that we had two fully matching kits, and both managers were being dicks about sorting the tops - insisting it was the other's responsibility to change, making me download the competition rulebook to sort that out and then "remembering" some different coloured training tops.

So I wasn't really in the mood to be flexible with the socks, eventually resulting in the captain driving to the local sports direct for 10 pairs of generic white socks.
 
I had a heated discussion with a coach who turned up to play a team in black and white stripes in their away white strip when they normally wear purple.
But we are the away team.
Yes, but you only need to wear your away strip when there is a clash, you should wear your home strip here.
But it's at home.
 
I should said this game is a open age game, we alway get a email by the home team the week before the fixture. Home team confirms what colour kit they will be playing in, just on this occasion there was a clash with both kits.

So I have ask away team to mix and match kits wearing the red socks with there Blue tops and black shorts.
 
Comes down, like so many things, to competition rules. I don't have SCoR to hand to check, but it used to say if shirts clashed the away team changed, there was nothing about shorts or socks.

Shorts clashing really isn't a problem. socks is the issue as you will just see a jumble of legs and it makes it impossible to see who played it. Years ago, but I refereed a women's cup final between Arsenal and Millwall where both teams had the same coloured shorts and socks. I tried to get it sorted but neither team were having it, so I made it crystal clear to both managers that if I or my team got throw-ins, corners, goal kicks, etc, wrong it was down to them. Perfect excuse for making random decisions, they handed it to me on a plate 😂
 
I agree had two games last season with teams wearing same colour shorts and socks was not easy.
 
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