2005-06 for Arsenal was memorable for a few reasons, namely it being their last campaign at Highbury after 93 years and they reached the UEFA Champions League Final for the first time.
To commemorate the stadium’s farewell, Nike produced redcurrant shirts for the Gunners, supposedly a pastiche of what they wore when they moved to North London in 1913. Later research suggests this is historically incorrect due to orthochromatic limitations in old film processing; the correct colour being a more standard shade called ‘Garibaldi red’.
With gold markings on the front, they were matched on the back albeit bordered white in the Premier League. Whilst the yellow change used the unbranded League numbering in Europe, the home had Nike’s Total 90 font en route to the Stade de France.
UEFA deemed this shiny typeset to be problematic, especially on dark attire. For 2006-07, they were in combat mode against this combination. As an aside, Sporting CP took the biscuit in the 05-06 UEFA Cup, using a black set on their black shorts and matching goalkeeper kit, only being made barely more legible by a white outline.
The most notable victim of this emergency ruling would be eventual winners AC Milan. Unlike the Londoners, their shade was lighter in the prior seasons and was very much readable without black backing — it was insisted the numbers had to be placed on a single colour between 2004-2008 no matter what.
They were forced to go with white through the tournament instead, also without the black outline and crest. Gold was still fine domestically.
Lucky enough to be in the Champions League altogether after being one of those implicated in the Calciopoli scandal. Their punishment of a 44-point deduction, placing them in the UEFA Cup instead, was reduced to 30 on appeal and so meant a single-place drop to 3rd in the 2005-06 Serie A standings.
Starting in the Third Qualifying Round as a result, the Rossoneri opted for the full Champions League branding, complete with the number box yet the gold characters.
Being drawn with Red Star Belgrade, they had to go with their all-black third away for the second leg. No Starball patch was applied and a red typeset was chosen in Serbia because complying to the full kit regulations is optional in the qualifiers; white sufficed as the only change needed for the main event.
Gold being outlawed was not the case at all, Manchester United were allowed to do the opposite of Milan by going white for national competitions and that on the continent.
Having matching trim, it was the first time that any other colour beyond the traditional red, white and black had appeared on a Red Devils home kit, unless you want to split hairs over 1996-98’s collar.
Added as a classy touch to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the Busby Babes winning the Football League, its qualification for the following European Cup — becoming England’s first participants in the process — made them ideal candidates to partake in the UEFA Celebration Match in March 2007.
There were no participants which had the objectionable shade on black but for the sake of that, the closest would be Valencia’s change strip and its orange font.
Worn at Olympiacos in Group D, it did have gold edging but the orange wasn’t reflective, causing no issues in that department.
However, reigning champions Barcelona didn’t get the memo. Whilst their home top had its monotone backing, their new orange and retained chartreuse change offerings used the exact same script which’s keylined with blue.
That being applied onto what are considered other tints of yellow, it makes Milan’s effort to fight it seem fruitless.
Though in the UEFA Cup, Arsenal’s local rivals Tottenham Hotspur used the supposedly offending glossy Puma type on their brown cup away kit. Unlike with its pre-season outing, a white border was applied to the numbers for use in Europe’s secondary tournament.
So it looks like there was some consistency with the use of gold besides Barça‘s spanner in the works, just by adding a matte fimbriation that also contrasted the shirt is what it took to appease the continental powers. So if the Lombardians used a white outer instead, they’d be fine?
Well less than two months after their global triumph, in spite of the aforementioned tribulations back at home, Italy began their Euro 2008 qualifying escapades. Like with FIFA during that summer’s World Cup, UEFA somehow had no qualms with the Azzurri using it straight up under their auspices.
One can assume that’s because of the relative lax nature of the qualifiers, where player names weren’t compulsory so why should greater legibility? Rules must have changed for the tournament proper as eventual champions Spain got away with the colourway unaltered.
As for the team that started this mess, Nike again supplied the letters and numbers for Arsenal but in white this time. Unlike with Man United’s bespoke shiny set, these ones were of their generic style with haloed digits.
Maybe after a year of guilt, gold returned for 2007-08 but now made in-house — only the numbers were anyway. The lettering were from the new Premier League font, which the club used by default on their new away and third kits; all outlined in white of course.
If you’ve noticed something odd with Valencia’s European shirt, and Arsenal’s if you look carefully, you’ll spot more UEFA meddling although that’s more down to Nike’s incompetence.
Team markings above the player identification could only feature on the collar and since both had their symbols slightly below, they had to be covered. Arsenal remedied this by placing another cannon on the neck in the competition and for the following campaign, they permanently moved it there.
Man United fell afoul to these regulations too; they had their initials near the hem at the front and that could only be placed chest height, adjacent to the crest if not taking its place.
The Football Association had an issue with the MUFC as well. Their own guidelines stipulated that only one type of club identification (or a combination of them) can feature on the front of the shirt, but didn’t bother enforcing this over time — allowing the offending initialism to be on show as the season progressed.
Kitted Off 