People are only just realising why England play in white

As another international break comes to an end, England fans will close the Gareth Southgate-shaped door until the summer as they open those to their clubs for the final run-in of the season.

Southgate's side got their Euro 2024 qualifying campaign off to the perfect start over the last couple of weeks, with wins over Italy and Ukraine ensuring they sit pretty at the top of Group C with six points out of a possible six.

The nation's white strip has become synonymous with England sides over the years, whether it was Bobby Moore wearing it while he lifted the World Cup in 1966, Leah Williamson creating history in it when she captained England's women to the Euros title last year, or Harry Kane breaking Wayne Rooney's goalscoring record in white just last week.

But many fans still don't know why England wear white, so we're here to explain why.

When England faced Scotland in the first ever international football match back in 1872 - which ended 0-0 - both sides needed kits to play in.

Scotland opted for the dark blue, or navy, that they don to this day, because their team was made up of 11 Queen's Park players that wore their club kits. Why wouldn't you?

So England needed something different. According to the Daily Star, the FA provided the side that played in the game with the white strip, which could have been spare cricket kits.

It didn't stay that way, however. It was often the case that players would sew an England badge onto their club shirts and play in various colours.

England's Harry Kane

But calls for consistency came and after a spell of players wearing white collared shirts with their club shorts and socks, the national side adopted the white shirt, navy shorts, white socks combo that remains to this day.

There have been periods where the side have had to wear white shorts too, but white and navy is the preferred look of choice, and it's unlikely that will be changing any time soon.