Manchester United will be forced to stray from their usual kit colours in Wednesday’s Europa League final against Tottenham Hotspur, wearing black shorts instead of white.
United would typically wear white shorts and black socks with their red home shirt, only changing the colour of the shorts and socks when there is a clash with the opposition’s strip.
Although the final is on neutral ground at San Mames in Bilbao, Tottenham have been designated as the ‘home’ team for the game. That means Spurs will get priority for kit colours. And while the north London side tend to wear navy blue shorts with their white home shirts, it is tradition for them to wear white shorts in European fixtures, as they now will in Bilbao.
A white shorts clash will push United into swapping to black, not that it particularly matters.
United’s last European trophy in 2017, also the Europa League, also saw them the designated ‘away’ team. On that occasion, against Ajax, they changed kit completely to an all-blue away strip. United also wore blue for the 1968 European Cup final against Benfica, and a white away kit against Barcelona in the 1991 final of UEFA’s now defunct Cup Winners’ Cup.
The Red Devils have never actually won a European trophy wearing the traditional red shirts, white shorts and black socks. That is because, although it hasn’t been the case this season, they have often prioritised white socks in European competitions in recent decades. They wore white socks with white shorts and red shirts during both the 1999 and 2008 Champions League finals.
United did, however, where black shorts in their most recent European final appearance, in the Europa League in 2021. On that occasion, Villarreal’s yellow shorts were considered a colour clash, and so United switched to black instead. Villarreal won the game after a marathon penalty shootout.
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This article was originally published on www.si.com as Why Man Utd Will Wear a Different Kit for Europa League Final.
