Burnley Football Club is proud to unveil the commemorative kit specially commissioned for the 125th anniversary.
The shirt was revealed for the first time tonight at a glittering gala dinner to coincide with the birth date of the club on May 18, 1882.
The light blue and white striped shirt, which will be worn at one home game during the 2007/08 Championship season, has been designed around the first ever colours worn by the club when it was founded.
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Manufacured by Errea, the commemorative kit features a white collar with pale blue trim and V-neck design with the gold '125' club crest inside a shield on the left breast, replicating the shield worn in the late 1800s.
The shirt, complimented by black shorts and white socks with blue trim, will go on sale this summer and pre-orders, including a special framed version, will be available from Monday morning through the official website.
The Commemorative Kit: A rationale by Ray Simpson, Burnley FC Historian
For many years, there has been a degree of confusion about the shirts in which Burnley Football Club played their earliest games following the foundation of the club in 1882 Early specific references refer to shirts of claret and amber (matching an early nickname of The Hornets).
David Wiseman, in 'Up The Clarets' (published 1973), attempts to set the record straight with a reference to "regular colours of blue and white stripes" during the 1885/86 season. And extensive research for Burnley Football Club's definitive, soon-to-be-released history book, 'The Clarets Chronicles', has now established beyond doubt that the club's principal colours from 1882 to 1890 were light blue and white stripes.
It is almost certain that these were also the colours of Burnley Rovers Rugby Club; the fore-runner of Burnley FC. All newspaper references to shirts worn for home matches during that era quote variations of blue and white, other than the Royal shirts (white with a blue sash) at the Royal match at Turf Moor in 1886, which was specially arranged to coincide with a Royal visit by Queen Victoria's grandson.
The famous photograph of April 1890, showing the Burnley players with the Lancashire Cup, is taken with the players wearing the light blue and white striped shirts for just about the last time before the club's colours were changes to all blue for the 1890/91 season.
This change was not popular and during that season, the players appeared in some games in white shirts before the registered colours were again changed to broad claret and amber stripes for the 1891/92 season. There were various changes during the following years -red, pink and white stripes and even green shirts - until the summer of 1910 when Claret and Blue was finally adopted.
