The Worst Football Kits of All Time

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Middlesbrough enjoyed an impeccable run of lovely home kits in the 1990s, with pretty much every design from 1995-96 through to 1998-99 still fondly remembered by fans. Known in the Netherlands as ‘De Godenzonen’ (that’s ‘Son of Gods’), Ajax’s 1989/90 season away shirts were more of an unholy concoction of colour and pattern. No one needs their shirts to be that busy and why were there straight horizontal pinstripes on the blue section? This shirt brings up more questions than it needs to.

This looks like one of Nelson Mandela's shirts. And, while Nelson could pull off this look, no-one else can. You are not, and never will be, as cool as Nelson Mandela and don't you forget it.Rarely has one player defined a kit as much as Gareth Southgate, dressed in grey with hands on head after his miss against Germany in a penalty shootout that led to the Three Lions exiting the Euro '96 semifinals on home soil. This remains the only time England have ever worn "indigo blue," as manufacturers Umbro dubbed it at the time, in a change from the traditional red away kit. The colour was chosen to go well with jeans, but it didn't work at all in its primary purpose as a football kit. Regularly voted the worst strip of all time and for good reason: whoever thought that a brown strip was a good idea? The one bonus was that you wouldn't look any different after a mudbath January match. Nike’s 2002 Brazil home strip is up there with the best as well - along with two of the US sport brand’s Arsenal shirts – the 1995/96 blue away and the 2005/06 redcurrant home shirts.

The large, white three-pronged Adidas stripes first appeared on Liverpool's home shirt and shorts in 1991, and the design was then retained (while undergoing slight modification) in 1992-93 when Carlsberg replaced electrical retailers Candy as principle shirt sponsors. Kits splattered in abstract patterns were fairly commonplace in the early years of the Premier League era, so it's perhaps impressive that Norwich's home shirt of the era still manages to stand out from the crowd. It's even become something of an ironic cult classic in recent years. For a start, orange and grey don't really work together and, secondly, the top half just seems to be a strange assortment of different sized oblongs. Utterly nonsensical.

Liverpool, 2013 (Third)

Worn by the likes of Sir Bobby Charlton CBE, Bobby Moore OBE and Sir Geoff Hurst MBE during the 1966 Wembley final, the iconic strip remains popular more than 50 years later. When the Guggenheim Museum opened in 1997, Bilbao became the home for Spanish arts. Well, 7 years later, Athletico took this a little too far by celebrating their centenary with a kit designed by Basque artist Dario Urzay. Ketchup on a shirt, yes.

Looking like something out of a New York club at the height of disco fever, it's the combination of grey shirt with 45-degree angle purple pinstripe, and the shiny purple shorts that really seals this horrendous kit's place in our list. We'd love to see anyone try and wear this on a Saturday night out in Sheffield and escape intact. Tartan should only be seen in the crowd - and only then in the form of kilts and 'comedy' tartan caps with ginger hair in the Tartan Army. It should never, repeat, never be used on a football shirt. Glad we've made that clear. At first glance, you may think, "what's wrong this this then?" And then you'd look a little closer, and perhaps gaze awhile at the purple section, and then maybe there'd be a dawning realisation that a rather 'controversial' political symbol has made its way into the design. At least, this is what would happen to normal people, but clearly not the designer of Fiorentina's kit in 1992. It had to be hastily withdrawn from sale after the error was spotted. The colour of this kit, described as "lightning pink" by manufacturer Le Coq Sportif, was meant to make the players more visible to each other. It was also inspired by the club's kit from the 1890-91 season, when the Toffees won their first of nine league titles. Midfielder Leon Osman admitted it "caused a bit of a stir in the dressing room" and was a "brave" design, while the club's chief executive Robert Elstone said at the time: "We want this new kit to help take Everton to the next level." They won four away games that season. However the adidas strip also made the top 20 best shirts - and is so popular it inspired the Gunners’ yellow away shirt for next season.Another mainstay in the rogue's gallery of abysmal football kits, Chelsea's garish grey-and-orange away kit of the mid-1990s has arguably aged a little better than initially expected -- though that's not to say that time has done anything to dampen the incredibly harsh colour clash on display. Meanwhile Arsenal's away aberration (modelled by Anders Limpar and Ian Selley) and Norwich's "covered in canary-droppings" home kit of the early 1990s have almost lost their impact through over-familiarity.

In the ranking, we have taken into account kits from club and national teams and have considered their home, away and alternate third uniforms. The Mutiny, led by Colombia's star of USA '94, Carlos Valderrama, won the Eastern Conference and MLS Supporters' Shield in their first season, but they never reached those heights again and eventually dissolved in 2002. Maybe it’s just something about yellow & green which means you’ll always find a Norwich or Australian kit in a ‘worst football kit’ list, but this one from Down Under in 1990 really takes the proverbial crap biscuit. Just no. If Lokomotiv Moscow's original colours were fluorescent green and London bus red, we could perhaps overlook this one, but they weren't; they were simply red and white. According to the club, the colour change in the early 2000s was inspired by fans who had taken to wearing red-and-green homemade scarves. This two-tone design is the worst Russian combo since t.A.T.u. Lokomotiv finished sixth in the season they sported this kit. Chelsea ’s grey and orange number from the 1994/95 season is also considered to be one of the worst kits – as is Manchester United’s notorious grey strip worn during 1995/96.Shirts worn by unsuccessful sides are perhaps unfairly forgotten, despite being fantastic designs – the 2009/10 England strip springs to mind. The distorted blue cross had the look of a Magic Eye drawing, but when you squinted and looked closer, instead of a three-dimensional aeroplane or merry-go-round, the only thing conjured in your mind was an instant-onset migraine. All in all, a bit too busy. 5. Wolverhampton Wanderers: away, 2020-21 (Adidas) (Photo by Robbie Jay Barratt - AMA/Getty Images) The shirt worn by England’s legendary World Cup winning side has been voted the greatest football strip of all-time. Colour palettes and weird patterns dominate our list but this beauty from Colorado Caribous in 1978 is truly something else. Tassels. Beige tassels. The kit only lasted one season and in said season, the team lost 22 of their 30 games. We think we may know why…