Football Shirts
Here I go again,
Sitting in this small place,
Always flung right down at the bottom.
I play on this field for 2 long hours.
The master gives me no credit.
I’m quite famous,
Although I stink of sweat.
After all, I am number ‘11’,
The game is finished,
My owner has won,
Off to the lockers,
Here I come.
Abbey Harris ex-7B
England footballers who have been suffering in the Portuguese heat could benefit from a new hi-tech football shirt that alerts managers to players' heart rate and hydration levels.
The shirt, designed by Northumbria University student David Evans, uses ECG sensors to record the electrical activity of the heart and send signals to a computer on the team bench, alerting managers, coaches and physios to the player's heart rate and highlighting any abnormal rhythms.
Silicon gel based strips are connected to the top of the players' backs and react to sweat loss to monitor hydration levels, indicating when a player is fatigued or dehydrated and could need to be substituted.
Additionally, a sensor on the shirtsleeve allows the bench to communicate with players out on the pitch by sending radio waves to a transmitter that gives off a small vibration and alerts the player to look towards the dug-out when necessary
Arsenal's new strip for their last season at Highbury may not be to everyone's taste but expert John Devlin is a redcurrant fan
When Second Division Woolwich Arsenal moved into their state-of-the-art Arsenal Stadium in 1913 it cost around £10m (in today's money). Their next new home, the Emirates Stadium down the road from Highbury, will come in at £357m, so a few extra kit sales would be handy before they bid farewell to their famous old ground at the end of this season.
Replica shirt sales
Shirt sales are important to both sponsors and clubs. In the 1980s, when hooliganism was a factor, club replica shirt sales were quite low and clubs did relatively little to limit the use of official club logos. In 1990, following the National League Baseball Association example, Arsenal were one of the first clubs to register its name, to stop traders outside the football ground selling the club logo at an undercut price (Hallam, 1992).
by Alex Bellos
Even if you don’t know who Aldyr Garcia Schlee is, you are definitely acquainted with his creation.
In 1953 he designed the Brazilian football strip. The yellow shirt with green collar and cuffs is today the best-known outfit in world sport – not just international football.
The shirt was first worn in 1954. To celebrate its fiftieth anniversary we asked Aldyr – who is now 69 – to write us a personal history of the shirt through all the World Cups between 1954 and 2002.
This is the result. It is a wonderful and moving story through Brazilian football, Brazilian history, Aldyr’s life and the life that the shirt took once he designed it.
For Arsenal’s last season at Highbury, the Club’s home since 1913, the players will wear, for home matches, a special commemorative strip.
The shirt, redcurrant in colour, matches the shade of the team’s strip in the Club’s first season at Highbury. Adorned with gold lettering and the Club crest the shirt is accompanied by white shorts and redcurrant socks.
In addition, the strip is manufactured, despite its authentic look, from the latest ‘breathable’ lightweight sports fabric.
A football shirt and pair of boots won by the captain of the Uruguayan team at the 1950 World Cup have been declared historical monuments by the government.
Obdulio Varela, the "Black Chief", led his team to victory in the competition as they beat Brazil 2-1 in the final in Rio de Janeiro.
His kit has come up for auction, but its new status means it now cannot be taken out of the country.
