VICTORY on a football pitch is usually determined by whichever team has the best players, most astute manager, or the biggest budget.
But now scientists are suggesting that sides that who wear a stripped kit could get an advantage over those whose strips are less patterned, if the animal kingdom is anything to go by.
A team of researchers looking at the ways creatures escape predators found that species with stripes cause confusion by becoming blurred when they move swiftly.
This makes them difficult to track in a fast-paced situation, meaning the stalking animal is more likely to miss-time its moment.
Alloa could be beneficiaries ....
The reverse is also true for predators, with prey animals in danger of failing to make the right moves when trying to escape a stripy creature intent on making having it for dinner.
And the same could be true for the field of football, with players wearing either vertical or horizontal stripes given a greater chance of slipping past their marker, dodging a tackle or bamboozling an opponent.
So while it helps to have the skill of a Lionel Messi, it may also be a good idea for teams to be striped for success.
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However, before club's like Rangers swap their blue strips for patterned ones like their great rivals Celtic, orange and black like Hull City or even the famous black and white of Newcastle, managers should be aware the theory has only been tested in the insect world.
There, at least, striped creatures are having a ball. It has long been known that some animals are better camouflaged when they are stationary by blending in but it has now been proven that those with stripes, particularly narrow ones, benefit from being mobile.
Newcastle University researchers tested out their theories on praying mantises in a specially constructed miniature cinema.
The insects were played videos of rectangular shapes which imitated bugs moving across a background similar to the natural environment.
As they watched films of the bugs moving at different speeds, the mantises would move their heads and follow the bugs across the screen, tracking them as if they were prey.
Some of the bugs had narrow or wide stripes, while others were patterned to match the background or had no pattern at all.
As could Newcastle....
The research, published in Current Biology, showed that the mantises found it particularly hard to spot the patterned bugs with narrow stripes moving at faster speeds.
This is believed to be because their stripes quickly become indistinct in the predator's field of vision, and more difficult to see.
Lead author, Professor Candy Rowe, professor of Animal Behaviour and Cognition at Newcastle University explained: "We wanted to answer a puzzle that scientists have been wondering about for a while - can a pattern lower the chances that moving prey is seen by a predator?
"If you're standing still, then looking like the background is one of the best ways to not be seen, whilst having high contrast stripes is just about the worst thing - you can really stand out.
"For moving prey, we find that the opposite is true: stripes are much better than matching your background.
"So the answer is yes, if you're stripy and move fast enough, then the blurring of the pattern can make it harder for the predator to spot you."
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"While we did this experiment with praying mantises chasing rectangular bugs on a computer screen, the same principle should apply in the wild.
"So maybe stripes help to hide zebras running on the plains, or hoverflies flitting from flower to flower."
But Rangers miss out.
Football strips have been blamed in the past for affecting a team's performance, but have rarely been given credit for a victory.
Scotland's pink away top has long been considered unlucky after the team recorded just one win wearing it.
A friendly 1-0 win away at the Czech Republic with the team wearing the top was followed by two consecutive non-competitive losses - 1-0 in Italy and 3-0 in France - before they were thrashed 3-0 in a World Cup qualifier in Slovakia
Sir Alex Ferguson famously switched Manchester United's grey away kit at half time when they were losing 3-0 at Southampton in 1996.
The manager felt the players could not make each other out in the bright sunshine and they were blending in with the crowd, and they never wore that kit again.
It is believed that the grey strip, which made it difficult for players to pick each other out, had been dreamed up by the club's marketing department as it went well with jeans.
The study used praying mantises
Whatever the reason, it is not a colour which other teams have adopted. However, while the Red Devils may have been better in stripes, the pattern has not always been a guarantee of success.
Newcastle United's famous black and white kit has not saved them from underachieving over the decades. But maybe the team is just not using it right.
Professor Rowe said: "So Newcastle United's stripes may be helping throw off their opponents - as long as the players are running fast enough."
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