-
Sam Borden
Multiple Authors
Within minutes of kickoff in the U.S. men’s national team’s March friendly against Belgium, everyone in the stadium — not to mention all the viewers watching on TV — realized there was a problem: The teams’ uniforms looked too much alike. Like, way, way too much alike.
“Everyone was a bit shocked,” Christian Pulisic said.
“It definitely was a little bit difficult whenever you do like a quick glance to tell which was which,” Weston McKennie said.
“That can’t happen,” Pulisic added.
It was a nightmare. And with a slew of high-stakes FIFA World Cup matches now taking place, involving 48 teams who have uniforms that run across the spectrum of the rainbow, the confusion of that U.S.-Belgium color catastrophe raises two key questions:
First, how did that mix-up happen? And second, with the eyes of the world on these critical games, could it happen again?
Let’s unpack both.
U.S.-Belgium: ‘The computer isn’t real’
Before any high-level soccer game, there is some form of prematch communication between the teams in which the logistics of the match are discussed. For official tournament games, that communication can border on monotonously in-depth (more on that in a moment), but for friendlies, it’s usually succinct.
With U.S.-Belgium, the communication about which uniforms the teams would wear was primarily electronic, according to multiple sources. The federations — both of which wanted to feature new uniforms that were being launched ahead of the World Cup — exchanged via email what are known as “kit CADs,” which stands for computer-aided design and is essentially a graphic representation of a team’s uniform.
Looking at the kit CADs of the U.S.’s red-and-white striped jersey and Belgium’s multicolor, light-blue shirt with pink patterns, one certainly wouldn’t think there would be a massive visual conflict.
“The problem is that the computer isn’t real,” said one high-level soccer executive who has worked on the uniform protocols for numerous international matches. “And so you have a scenario where in reality, both kits ending up looking primarily white, especially from the back.”
The back element is important. The large “number plate” — the white box on the back of the U.S. jersey that shows the player’s numeral — intensified the clash, as the back of the Belgium jerseys also appeared especially light under the bright stadium lighting.
Ironically, in a previous iteration of the stripes jersey, worn in 2012, the U.S. didn’t have a number plate at all and that presented a different problem, as officials and broadcasters couldn’t make out many of the numbers since they were swallowed up by the stripes.
This time, the white plate hurt more than it helped.
“In this case, it feels like the stars just aligned in a bad way for everyone,” the executive said. “Then you add in the stadium lighting and the cameras, and it just looks so different than you would expect just looking at the graphics. I can see why no one would have predicted it.”
Of course, compounding the issue was that neither team was able to change. The U.S., as the home team, had priority in uniform choice but would have changed if its blue uniforms were available; alas, they were back at the team’s hotel, according to multiple sources.
And Belgium, who might have had all it kits with it since it was traveling after the match, unfortunately had already shipped much of its team luggage, including its other jerseys, onto the site of its next game.
“I can’t imagine how frustrated the equipment staffs must have felt,” said one kit man, who has worked for a national team at multiple World Cups. “To see something that bad and not be able to fix it is basically our disaster scenario.”
‘Sometimes there are mannequins …’
As disappointing as the U.S.-Belgium situation was for the players (and everyone watching on television), the reality, according to multiple sources, is that it’s incredibly unlikely to ever see anything similar during a World Cup match.
For anyone who follows world soccer, it won’t be surprising to learn that at a World Cup, FIFA controls everything about what each team will wear. So, while both the U.S. and Belgium were determined to show off their new jerseys during that friendly, if the fixture had been a tournament match, FIFA would have forced one of the teams to wear a different uniform that wasn’t even close to the same shade. Team preference isn’t a factor.
“You don’t get to pick anything,” the executive said. “Months before the tournament begins, you have to submit examples of everything — jerseys, shorts, socks, even things that people never use anymore like goalkeeper hats. You send all of that in, and FIFA puts together the matchups however they want.”
(As an aside: The kit man, who was responsible for sending such packages, said he initially would send in normal sizes of his team’s jerseys and shorts with proper numbers and the names of a star player on the back; then, after hearing that FIFA officials were often keeping the submissions as souvenirs, he began sending either XXL or child sizes of the jerseys with SAMPLE on the name plate instead.)
Unlike in the U.S.-Belgium friendly, FIFA requires teams to have all their uniforms available each game in case of an unexpected issue. And FIFA’s approach to picking the colors used is holistic: It considers everything, ranging from how the uniforms will look on a broadcast as well as how an assistant referee peering through a crowd and trying to judge a tight offside decision might see the contrast.
The choices are also draconian. For example, at this World Cup, there was much public love for Curaçao’s bright yellow new away kit and the tiny federation was excited by the response. Then it learned that FIFA had scheduled it to wear its primary blue kit for all three group stage matches.
Before each tournament match (at a World Cup or any major confederation event), there is also a lengthy protocol meeting led by a match commissioner appointed by the organizers. These meetings, which are attended by multiple representatives from each team are designed to review the particulars of a match: timings for walk-ons, for example, or routes for an ambulance if there is a medical emergency. They also often display the uniform layout for the game.
“Sometimes you’d literally come in and there are mannequins wearing each team’s jersey, mannequins in the referee kits, everything,” said a former national federation official who attended many of these meetings. “It feels like you’re in a store.”
Although teams might have superstitious (or even marketing) reasons for wanting to wear a particular jersey, requests are not typically granted.
One match commissioner recalled an Asian Champions League game that he worked between a team from China and a team from Australia in which both teams had first-choice kits that were red. The Australian team’s second kit was white and red, so the match commissioner assigned the Chinese team to wear its yellow second kits. This enraged the Chinese delegation, the commissioner said, as they were determined to wear red because it is a lucky color in Chinese culture.
“They tried to say, ‘Oh, we don’t have the yellow because it’s all in the laundry — we wore it in our last match,'” the commissioner said. “That was really what they said! With a straight face and everything.”
He laughed. “They ended up wearing yellow.”
