I highlighted a reason why it would make sense, but it appears you are not seeing it.
Kit clash
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ChasObserverRefDeveloper
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National League rules require the home club to advise their kit colours (shirts, shorts, socks and goalkeeper's colours) to the away club and the match officials five days before the game, and all recipients must acknowledge at least three days before the game.
Seems the away club and the officials didn't pick up on red and orange being similar, especially in bright sunlight. . .
Seems the away club and the officials didn't pick up on red and orange being similar, especially in bright sunlight. . .
That does appear to be the case, though if Aways away kit is still white (and assuming they were informed of Truro’s new colour & no reason to doubt it), it would have been so much easier to have brought white.
You made an assumption that no different kit was available, I would say that is an absolute given otherwise they would have used it, and that the referee had to decide whether to start knowing there was an issue or make them turn it inside out before kick off. I just don't see how any rational referee could start that game as it would be blatantly obvious it wasn't going to work, even more so as they also had the same colour shorts and socks. It would be nigh on impossible for assistants to judge offsides, especially on the far side of them.
I get that not being able to see shirt numbers could be an issue, but at that level they also have them on the shorts so there would at least be some mitigation.
I always remember the example of what happened down at Tonbridge Angels, with the whoever the away team was that day wearing the Tonbridge away kit.
Red and orange are very similar colours anyways and I think I'd certainly be hesitant at letting them wear those after looking at the team sheets!
Having just had a quick look who the ref is, I think they might take a bit of a bollocking for letting it go that far. But at the same time, it comes down to all 4 officials if none of them had raised concerns about it.
Red and orange are very similar colours anyways and I think I'd certainly be hesitant at letting them wear those after looking at the team sheets!
Having just had a quick look who the ref is, I think they might take a bit of a bollocking for letting it go that far. But at the same time, it comes down to all 4 officials if none of them had raised concerns about it.
That’s a very reasonable point concerning numbers on shorts.
I think to be fair we would need to know the full sequence of communication between clubs and officials prior to the day, at team sheet exchange and immediately prior to kick off, to really understand this one.
At the very latest, I can't imagine them standing in the tunnel waiting to go onto the pitch and not one official, player, manager or anyone else noticing and saying something, so it seems likely there was some kind of agreement that 'we'll manage', which turned out to not be manageable.
Also, sometimes colour definition on photographs and in real life can look quite different, so maybe the clash wasn't quite as glaring on the day.
That being said, having to stop a game after a few minutes and turn shirts inside out is not a good look at this level or many below it, and I expect at least one of the clubs and the officials will have to accept some 'feedback'. The Dorking manager, who is no shrinking violet, noticeably avoided it in his post match interview, which might tell you something about the root cause.
Didn't realise that before I posted above but this would make some sort of sense.
Could be a case of some sort of amateur mistake like they took the wrong kit, looks as if the one pictured in the article is their 3rd kit rather than their away kit. It would've made sense for them to have worn their away kit, knowing what colours Truro were planning on wearing.
The Truro match report says that Dorking chose to wear their third shirts, so you have to assume that is what was entered onto the team sheet. Although that is only one side of a three sided story, and Dorking and the match officials may well say otherwise.
This doesn't matter. The requirement is that they are 'distinguishable', not that they have a different nominal label. So one bright fluorescent and the other a dark shade may both be called 'green' but be absolutely fine.
Could they have put out a tannoy announcement for any of the Dorking fans who had turned up in a home replica shirt to report to the players tunnel, do a swap and, as a momento, the Dorking players sign the shirts? It might have meant the Dorking players needing to wear a t-shirt underneath for hygiene purposes but it would have been a good story for the fans to tell in years to come.
The story does remind me of the time, 20 years or more ago, when Bishop's Stortford turned up to play Sutton (playing in an amber and chocolate kit), with the yellow away kit. Stortford ended up playing in Sutton's away kit and picking up a fine from the league. It's clear the Stortford chairman at the time read the paperwork from Sutton when it was sent through because his excuse after the event was "I didn't know what amber was"!
An earlier posting on this thread mentioned supporters and players being able to pick out players from their own team. I was at Stortford's home match against Alvechurch on Saturday where only two players, both from Alvechurch, played for their respective clubs last season. Most of us spent as much time checking the team sheet to find out who had passed to who as watching the game!
The story does remind me of the time, 20 years or more ago, when Bishop's Stortford turned up to play Sutton (playing in an amber and chocolate kit), with the yellow away kit. Stortford ended up playing in Sutton's away kit and picking up a fine from the league. It's clear the Stortford chairman at the time read the paperwork from Sutton when it was sent through because his excuse after the event was "I didn't know what amber was"!
An earlier posting on this thread mentioned supporters and players being able to pick out players from their own team. I was at Stortford's home match against Alvechurch on Saturday where only two players, both from Alvechurch, played for their respective clubs last season. Most of us spent as much time checking the team sheet to find out who had passed to who as watching the game!
Correct.
I wouldn’t say doesn’t matter though.
The word ‘distinguishable’ is also used in the outfield players colours so if your are referring to one then you will need to refer to the other.
If both are different shades of green and are fine then so would different shades of orange / red.
I'm not sure that Dorking would have had 16 supporters at Truro, let alone 16 with kits that fit the players.
I don’t think you can make any excuses for the referee team. You are there up to two hours before kick off, what are you doing during that time? I always use the warm ups to check shorts & socks don’t clash. This would have been an early clue orange & red is a problem. I remember at a grass roots match not accepting both sides wearing black socks so insisted away team use white tape in hoops down the socks, now realise might be a bit pedantic for step 7!
We get it, but I would like to know what you would have done (have to assume that no other kits available)?
An hour before the match, said to both managers, we clearly can’t play with these kits, so we postpone or find a spare kit from somewhere. I think they would find a Sunday morning kit from somewhere. Someone in the crowd would run a pub team
Of course we don’t know that the bluff wasn’t initially used though we do know it wasn’t postponed and nor would it have been - a solution had to be found and was in the end. There may have been better ones to included delaying the kick off, but we just don’t know about what went on behind the scenes to make any informed comment.An hour before the match, said to both managers, we clearly can’t play with these kits, so we postpone or find a spare kit from somewhere. I think they would find a Sunday morning kit from somewhere. Someone in the crowd would run a pub team
WiisardNic
Well-Known Member
I believe that something like this happened in Italy's second or third division a few years back. Not sure if mementos were made, etc - but from memory, the team showed up to the away game in the away kit (which was deemed to clash), so either the game would be forfeited, but the match was allowed to go ahead with a mish-mash of home kits sourced from the crowd!
Found the image and the story (back from 1998)! - https://www.nssmag.com/en/sports/27576/calcio-catania-fans-jersey-messina
one
RefChat Addict
I am not sure what happens in England for 6th tier, assuming it is a pro/semi-pro level, there would be protocols set by the competition and the referees have no choice but to follow it. Some, but not all decisions within that protocol is left to the referees but even for that there are guidelines.
IMO just saying the referee should not have allowed this to happen can be a harsh statement without knowing all the facts. They could have been put in a dammed if you do and dammed if you don't position. And what happened here was the best compromise.
Where I am, kit colors for a match are predetermined and published in advance. Every match has a match commissioner appointed by the competitions. Any issues like this on the day has to be managed and decided by the match commissioner. If the teams and the match commissioner decide the go ahead with a compromise, the only options for the referee is to go ahead or say I am not refereeing the game which pretty much means saying your refereeing career goodbye.
IMO just saying the referee should not have allowed this to happen can be a harsh statement without knowing all the facts. They could have been put in a dammed if you do and dammed if you don't position. And what happened here was the best compromise.
Where I am, kit colors for a match are predetermined and published in advance. Every match has a match commissioner appointed by the competitions. Any issues like this on the day has to be managed and decided by the match commissioner. If the teams and the match commissioner decide the go ahead with a compromise, the only options for the referee is to go ahead or say I am not refereeing the game which pretty much means saying your refereeing career goodbye.
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It was almost a year since the incident between Scunthorpe United v Buxton in the National League Prem which was abandoned with the Away team winning when despite for most of the game it was played in bright sunshine a thunderstorm hit the ground with only a few mins to play. The game was replayed with the same outcome - an Away win, but there was much discussion & costs involved in the game being replayed. I can just imagine what the NL would have thought if the Truro game was postponed before it even started. I have to say that the Italian game shown in the pic shows what can be achieved in certain circumstances.
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