SCOTLAND are set to wear their controversial pink away strip against England next week due to the white sleeves on their home kit clashing with their opponents’ shirt.
Gordon Strachan’s side will take on the Auld Enemy for the first time in a competitive fixture in 17 years in a vital Russia 2018 qualifier at Wembley on Friday week.
The national team, who have picked up just four points from a possible nine so far in Group F, need to win to resurrect their hopes of making it to the next World Cup finals.
However, they will not be able to play in their traditional dark blue strip after the match commissioner ruled the sleeves would be indistinguishable from those of their rivals.
The new home and away strips were unveiled amid an outcry from many Scotland supporters in October last year - with the white sleeves on the home shirt being badly received in particular.
Strachan’s team last wore the garish pink away strip in their 3-0 defeat to Slovakia in a Russia 2018 qualifier in Trnava last month.
Hamish Husband of the West of Scotland Tartan Army admitted he was disappointed the national team would not be wearing their traditional colours.
“As unbelievably popular as the pink strip is with supporters who travel to Scotland games, I think the consensus of opinion is that we should wear blue at Wembley,” said Husband.
“It is the same blue that Scotland wore when the Wembley Wizards won 5-1 back in 1928. The team should wear blue win, lose or draw.
“But I am afraid that those of us who would like to see Scotland remain in a blue strip are clutching at straws here. This is no great surprise.
“But I think the ghosts of Billy Bremner, Jim Baxter, Lawrie Reilly and the Wembley Wizards will all be disturbed by this.
“Scotland belong in blue. The fans definitely do think that. Even the fans who will go to the game wearing the pink strip think that.”
Husband added: “I think that many of us were half expecting this due to happen to the white arms on the new home strip.
“When you are a lower ranking international side and you sign a deal with adidas you are given a ready-made strip because you are so far down the pecking order.
“It’s just off the shelf. The likes of Germany, meanwhile, get theirs specifically made for them because of their standing in the game.
“I have heard that the white sleeves come from a couple of games in the 1950s. Apparently they were put on due to black and white television. They helped the viewers to identify the sides.
“I hope that Scotland are still able to produce a one-off performance and get a famous win over England at Wembley despite wearing a pink strip.
“At the end of the day it is all down to the players. But perhaps they should wear the dark blue strip that Jim Baxter and Denis Law wore at Wembley in 1967 under their pink strip. Maybe that will inspire them.”
The news was greeted with dismay by former Scotland player Lou Macari who took to Twitter to express his dismay. “They deserve to lose 3-0,” he posted.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel