Official: Japanese 2014 Home Kit
Here we have the official imagery for the new Japanese national team shirt for 2014, that we will see the Samurai Blue wear in Brazil next summer. They qualified for the World Cup topping Group B of the AFC World Cup qualification fourth round.
They will wear the new kit for the first time against Holland, when they play them at the Cristal Arena in Genk, Belgium. Japan will then play Belgium on the 19th their second fixture in the November international window.
Japan wear blue shirts, rather than the red from their flag, due having won wearing a blue kit at the 1936 Summer Olympics, creating a natinal football superstition. They won that match 3–2 in their first major international competition.
Decent kit. it would be better if without the flag!
its very team gb from the 2012 olympics.
people are going on about this one colour kit nonsense…where are the sources to back this up?
beautiful kit, but their football….
@2
It’s believed it is now being insisted upon by FIFA in their competitions to aid referees to distinguish each team. For example they seem to no longer think there is no clash if England (white / navy /white) play France (royal blue / white / red). The theory is that FIFA would now consider that a clash because it is harder to distinguish than one team all in white and one all in blue.
Page 20, here…
http://www.fifa.com/mm/document/tournament/competition/51/54/30/equipment_reg_26032010_en.pdf
… Are the official regulations, but this current situation is not a rule, but a request. A bit like when UEFA used to request home sides wore their away kits at home in the European Cup, and back panels were required on teams wearing stripes to distinguish their numbers, even if, as with the Milans or Barca, the numbers were clearly visible.
That is why, some say, me included, that so many international teams are moving away from their traditional kits and to single colours. It was very noticable during the last aworld Cup, and the last Euros, that games where there were no clashes featured teams changing.
Is it true? Who knows? It would explain a lot though. It’ll be interesting if Germany’s new kit is all white, or Spain’s is all red. Argentina’s new kit now has white shorts for the first time ever.
Usually these sorts of posts are followed by a lot of abuse, so fire away…
another really quality nice kit
@2 The sources to back it up? Did you watch the last World Cup? and also when was the last time Japan played with white shorts?
not good enough. thats just going off speculation and not hard evidence that states changes, despite agreeing somewhat with what you said.
asking if someone commenting on a football shirt website if they watched the world cup….come on now.
2010/11 was the last time japan wore white shorts to answer your question.
I DID watch the last World Cup. Germany, Mexico, Brazil, Australia, South Africa, Uruguay, South Korea, Serbia, Chile, Switzerland and a whole host of other teams wore contrasting shorts at some point or other during the tournament.
Okay, so a few teams have gone for a single-colour strip in recent years (England, Netherlands, France etc.) but that’s by no means indicative of a “new rule”.
Until I see a rule change confirmed or quoted on the FIFA website, I shan’t believe it.
@4, not good enough. people talk about it all the time, where do fifa actually state this? take into account that you just asked someone who browses a football shirt website if they watched the last world cup…
and japan last played in white shorts in 2010/11, which would be the last world cup
It’s not a rule that teams are only allowed one colour kits overall. But for tournaments teams must wear a home and away consisting of one colour each, with one kit being dark and the other light. So Mexico for example may release a kit of green/white/red and wear that colour combination in friendlies or qualifiers, but they will wear all green at the world cup. They have only let Argentina carry on wearing stripes because there would be uproar if they didn’t, but they are wearing white shorts for the first time ever. I suspect Brzil will be allowed to wear a three colour kit next year though since they are hosts and because FIFA are biased.
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