Despite beating QPR 2-0, fans were left frustrated over the choice of kits used, with us playing in our usual white home strip whilst QPR selected to play the contest in their light blue away strip, which looked extremely similar to ours on first glance.
Who allowed QPR to wear this kit? Can’t have helped with making the call on Bammy’s disallowed goal pic.twitter.com/OAvnjcAlpi
— FOREVER LEEDS (@FOREVERLEEDSMOT) November 3, 2019
In the EFL Section 5 – Fixtures rules it states:
38.3 When away from home a Club shall play in a registered kit which is clearly distinguishable (shirts, shorts and socks) from those of their opponents. The League reserves the right to relax this requirement in respect of shorts where appropriate and after consultation with match officials.
So it makes you wonder how two kits that look very similar were allowed to be used, apart from being hard to distinguish who has the ball, it’s also an issue for the linesman, who has to make very quick calls with very limited visibility on a normal day, so when you have two teams playing in near-identical colours, mistakes will be made.
The EFL Guidance for match officials is as follows:
Guidance
The order of precedence when determining kit colours for any fixture is as follows:
- Home club outfield
- Away club outfield
- Home goalkeeper
- Away goalkeeper
- Match officials
Clubs are required to resolve any potential clash in advance of matchday. Match Officials should ensure they find the playing kits of both teams acceptable. The Football Services Department in liaison with PGMOL will adjudicate if necessary and reserves the right to relax the requirement in respect of shorts where appropriate and after consultation with match officials.
A breach of this Regulation is designated a strict liability offence as detailed in Regulation 87.
Clearly this was a huge mistake by the match officials, with some partially/colour blind fans saying how difficult it was for them to watch this match from the stands. Here is what just some of them had said when taking to social media to vent their frustrations about the kit clash.
I thought that at kick off. Bizarre decision. Far too light.
— Adam (@adzrobins73) November 3, 2019
Cooper “passed” to one of their players too in the last few minutes of the game. Im@sure he thought he was passing to one of his own team mates! I’m colourblind and I could not tell at all which team was which for most of the game. Stupid decision! @colourblindorg
— Gavin Pickup (@KTMGav) November 4, 2019
Already been on my soap box about the kit clash yesterday,been on it since the game yesterday it was a nightmare,i struggled big style being halfway back lower east stand, all the officials were colourblind and thought we were fielding 22 players
— David Michael Cox (@gurucox) November 3, 2019
Ridiculous decision for spectators & officials more importantly
— Rick Hartley (@RickHartley64) November 3, 2019
What makes it even dafter is that they have a pink and navy third kit this season. Why they couldn’t wear that is beyond me. pic.twitter.com/WjdBn7w8fe
— Andy Brook (@andybrook1) November 4, 2019
A few people sitting around me in east stand who are colour blind couldn’t make out the two teams they were very frustrated.
— Chris Sly (@ChrisSly16) November 3, 2019
I sit about 7 rows from the front in SS and i do have slight colour vision problems and i honestly struggled big time. I cant believe the game was allowed to be played like that
— Markus (@ElRockio) November 3, 2019
Should have been made to switch shirts at half time. Ridiculous to wear such a colour clash strip
— Simon (@simonparsons19) November 3, 2019