The World’s Ugliest Football Kits

Producing a brand new kit design every year must be somewhat tricky, especially if you’re restricted by the team’s colours, and most of the good ones have been done before. Also, the recent requirement for third and fourth kits hasn’t helped either. Clearly, this has sent designers insane. It’s the only reasonable explanation for the following distasteful style abominations. We at SBO.net go back in time – all the way back to 1978 – to present to you some of the worst football kits to ever set foot on a football field. Here’s a look at the teams, from all over the world, which got it oh-so-wrong.

Horrendous Away Kits

Have you ever watched your favourite team walk out of the stadium tunnel and almost choked on your nuts and beer? Well, that’s what we did when we first laid eyes on these awful away kits. More often than not, Sheffield Wednesday has always had some form of blue and white striped outfit. Until one fine day in 1984, some fashion connoisseur decided the club’s footballers should prance around in purple satin shorts. Not very masculine, and not very practical either I would think. Everton’s players were also somewhat emasculated when they were given shocking pink shirts to wear during their away games not so long ago in 2013. Mind you, there’s nothing wrong with pink, but this was just overly bright. I’m afraid you have to see these strips for yourself to believe what I’m saying! We have an array of ugly away football kits in our infographic below such as Barcelona’s 2013 bright yellow number and Chelsea’s ’95 and ’16 gruesome away strips. Chelsea are doing well so far this season, but can they inch their way into the top three? I might be inclined to put money down on it.

Atrocious Goalkeepers

Goalkeepers are the unlucky brunt of the bunch who get lumped with the worst strips. They have a history of being horrid. One glance at the monstrosities in our infographic and you’ll be having nightmares for months. Just take Mexico’s ‘94 and Estonia’s ’96 goalkeeper kits, both of which have really interesting backstories which you can find out about below.

Do you remember England’s second most capped goalie, David Seaman? It looks like the 90s were a particularly terrible time for goalkeeping strips, as his ’96 abomination might have brought a few tears to fans’ eyes – that and his moustache! It’s also hard to believe that Sunderland’s goalkeeper wore a multicoloured checkered-jester getup for more than two years! I guess, they were trying to hypnotise their opponent into losing the ball up front. Same goes for the Liverpool goaler, David James’ 1995 jersey which was turned out to be worse than his attempts at catching crosses. The Adidas shirt really resembled something straight out of the Fresh Prince of Belair’s wardrobe. Bochum’s ’97 kit and Wycombe Wanderers’ latest atrocities are also worth checking out below.

International Disasters

Ever seen tassels on a football kit? Well, you’re about to now. About 40 years ago, Colorado Caribous gave us one of the strangest kits of all time, reminiscent of something out of the Wild West. There’s also the Australian 1990’s national team trainwreck of a jersey which made headlines, and the African national team of Cameroon released an excrescence of a kit in 2004 which vaguely resembled a onesie. Head to our infographic to find out what happened during the World Cup qualifier when those Cameroonians walked onto the pitch dressed like that. Speaking of World Cup qualifiers – with plenty of international breaks this season, don’t forget to bet on who you think will make it past the qualifying stage. Russia 2018 is just around the corner!

As for the Spanish, they don’t seem to have a good reputation for designing football kits. La Hoya Lorca looked like they had peas painted on their jerseys in their 2014 uniform. Basque artist Dario Urzay designed an eye-popping shirt to mark Athletic Bilbao’s centenary – they only wore it in a short UEFA Cup campaign in 2004. The shirt was supposed to evoke a blood splatter, but it looked more like an explosion in a strawberry jam factory. Not a good look for the Basque side.

Words don’t do these strips justice. All that’s left now is to see these fashion disasters for yourself!

About the author

Eric Roberts

Sports Journalist

Eric has been a sports journalist for over 20 years and has travelled the world covering top sporting events for a number of publications. He also has a passion for betting and uses his in-depth knowledge of the sports world to pinpoint outstanding odds and value betting opportunities.