England will now wear their home kit instead of their crimson away shirt
England women will wear their home kit against Northern Ireland on Friday to avoid any colour blind clash with their opponents.
Sarina Wiegman’s side had been set to wear their crimson away kit, but will now wear their white shirt, white shorts and crimson-coloured socks to allow for better viewing for fans who suffer from colour blindness.
The green home kit of Northern Ireland would have clashed with the Lionesses’ away shirt as red and green are the most common colours to cause a problem with those who suffer from the condition.
Northern Ireland opted to wear an all-white away kit for their opening two group stage fixtures against Norway and Austria for similar reasons.
Colour Blind Awareness spokesperson praises England’s decision
Colour blindness affects one in 12 men and one in 200 women and is caused if one of the three cones – a specialised cell which detect red, green and blue – does not work as well as the others, or doesn’t work at all.
Kathryn Albany-Ward, a representative for the charity Colour Blind Awareness, praised the decision.
“We’re obviously delighted when organisers and teams make decisions on kits to avoid kit clashes for colour blind fans and players,” she told The Athletic.
“However, there is still a lot of work to be done with the less well known problematic colour combinations and especially around ‘clashing’ goalkeeper and match officials’ kits.”
England have already qualified for the knockout stages
England are top of Group A and have already secured their place in the quarter-finals after wins against Austria and Norway – the latter an 8-0 thrashing on Monday night.
Northern Ireland however have lost both of their games in the tournament and are bottom of the group, unlikely to advance to the next stage.
"It drives me mad. The fact they know there is a kit clash and it still happens is just not acceptable."
Football is failing colour blind fans, but it can be easily remedied. This is how. pic.twitter.com/0QAac9JI6s
— FootballJOE (@FootballJOE) February 16, 2021
Related links:
- England women’s squad will not change colour of shorts during Euros despite period concerns
- Fans complain about away kit clash in England women’s friendly
- Fans divided over Ellen White ‘dive’ for England penalty against Norway
