Entertainment desk
< June 14	<< May \| June \| Jul >>	June 16 >

Welcome to the Wikipedia Entertainment Reference Desk Archives
The page you are currently viewing is an archive page. While you can leave answers for any questions shown below, please ask new questions on one of the current reference desk pages.

June 15[edit]

Japanese soccer team colours[edit]

I know that national soccer team jerseys are usually based on the country's flag - except, notably, Australia, which is apparently based on the national flower, and Italy, which uses the colour of the old royal family. But what about Japan? I found that they were wearing blue jerseys at the 1936 Olympics, and won their first ever game, so they took it as a good omen and continued to wear blue. But why were they wearing blue in the first place? Is blue typically associated with Japan? Adam Bishop (talk) 23:37, 15 June 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Someone will have an answer to your specific question. I would point out that the way the colors are chosen has changed as the game has become more commercialized. FIFA and/or the company making the jerseys now have as much say as the teams themselves. Just look at the ones worn for the Spain v Netherlands match which were not there usual jerseys and had no colors from the countries flags. MarnetteD|Talk 00:37, 16 June 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Wasn't there something recently about FIFA trying to get the teams to wear shorts with the same colour as the shirts - and Brazil and Uruguay were all like 'lol no'? Something I heard on the radio the other week... --Kurt Shaped Box (talk) 01:20, 16 June 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Yes, most teams have capitulated. Nanonic (talk) 06:55, 16 June 2014 (UTC)[reply]

The Japan Football Association, on their own webpage, say "We don't know".Original Google translate Nanonic (talk) 06:55, 16 June 2014 (UTC)[reply]

The Netherlands of course, generally wear orange in honour of the House of Orange. Teams have to have two different sets of kits to avoid clashes of colours; in the recent game, the Netherlands were wearing their second or "away" kit which is blue (there is a blue stripe on the flag of the Netherlands). England once had grey shirts as their away kit, which was alright until they had to play in a mist and nobody could see each other. Alansplodge (talk) 12:23, 18 June 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Correction, it was Manchester United that had to change their grey shirts at half time because they were invisible in the fog.[1] However England did have a similar grey strip for Euro 96, it must have been the fashion that year.[2] Alansplodge (talk) 16:53, 18 June 2014 (UTC)[reply]