Fans are only just realising why England play in white

Fans are only just realising why England play in white.

On Tuesday the Three Lions take on Scotland in a special friendly to mark the 150th anniversary of the first ever international football match.

Scotland first welcomed England to the West of Scotland Cricket Club back in 1872 in front of an audience of 4,000 as the two teams played out a 0-0 draw.

Of course, the two sides have met plenty of times since, with the last match being a tepid stalemate during the group stage of Euro 2020.

This time out both sides are on the cusp of reaching Euro 2024 but are putting their respective qualifying campaigns on hold for the celebratory friendly, which will take place at Hampden Park in Glasgow.

While the aforementioned first-ever fixture between England and Scotland birthed international football, it also led to England wearing their famous white.

On that day the Tartan Terriers donned a full navy kit, with the team of 11 Queen’s Park players actually wearing their club kit. In turn, England had to go for something else to ensure the two sides could be distinguished.

As per a Sun report, the FA supplied the white kits, which may have been spare cricket tops, for the fixture.

Even then, England did not immediately stick with white. For a period the side would just sew their England badge onto the club kits. Then for a time, white-collared shirts were introduced with players wearing their club shorts and socks.

But by the late Nineteenth century, the press pushed for consistency, so England opted for white shirts, navy shorts and white socks.

While there have been some variations in recent years - for example, the white shorts of 2009 and the red shorts of 2012 - - these tend to be the colours England still wear to this day.

Indeed, the navy shorts may have been chosen to differentiate from Germany’s all-white strip.