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SGB Sports & Outdoor June
By the time you read this, we'll be in the middle of the European Championships, and of course there's no England team competing. Well, none of the Home Nations made it, in fact, despite superb efforts from Northern Ireland, Wales and Scotland, and a really poor effort by England.
Many retailers were hit by not selling England shirts, we read - but how many independents were seriously affected? Not that many, I would bet, because the volume of England football shirts are sold through big box retailers, at prices the independent can only dream of. But is there any money to be made in football shirts? In non-England shirts? I believe there probably is. Most football fans, myself included, love the game for itself. The idea of a tournament without England is, while annoying in the extreme, the chance to watch football unencumbered by emotion, and therefore to enjoy the game in its purest form.
People buy shirts for all sorts of reasons. I have several that are nothing at all to do with the club I support, including a Kaizer Chiefs shirt (nothing to do with the band either, I've had it for more than 10 years) and a Barcelona shirt (though my current favourite is a Turks and Caicos Islands shirt, Prostar's first-ever international shirt - you wouldn't believe the amount of compliments I get in it!). Often it is because they feel the team the shirt represents has some sort of aspirational meaning for them. Italy shirts are usually very easy on the eye and Italy is always aligned with style. Portugal shirts are usually a beautiful colour and their players are creative, their play attacking and again, stylish. Argentina shirts are popular with fans because of Diego Maradona's status as one of the greatest players ever, despite the 'goal' against England; Brazil shirts are all style and one of the game's most distinctive colourways, and of course they scream success.
With all this in mind, I am thinking of emailing Umbro to suggest England's next home shirt, instead of the traditional white, should perhaps be brown.
Jon Bruford, Editor
01584 877177
