I have just received the minutes of the Waltham Sunday League Management Committee meeting held last Thursday evening and they have a 'reminder' in there that teams are 'not allowed' to wear the same colour shorts and socks as their opponents, and that Referees will not allow games to take place if both teams turn up wearing the same colours of one or the other !

Since when did this come in then ? It's the first time I have heard of it !
Obviously we don't wear the same colour shirts and it's never an issue with socks anyway as nobody else wears jade. However, about 50% of the teams we have played over the last 20-odd years in this League have worn the same colour shorts as us...invariably black..., and this coming Sunday both us and Larsens will be wearing black shorts. Neither team has another set of shorts of a different colour !
Thankfully our Referee is Dave Stevenson and I am sure he will show common sense, but there are bound to be some Referees who will tell us (or our opponents) to change our shorts before the kick-off. (I wonder what our friend Mr. Wildgoose thinks ? I think he still reads our Forum ?)

What is Ben going to do if we are playing Away to a team wearing black shorts ? He won't be able to wear his knee-length Nike beach shorts.

What sort of mentally retarded person has come up with the idea!!? This is pathetic!

Somebody at the F.A....but I'm sure our League do not have to enforce it. It's just another example of them (or more likely a certain person) mis-interpreting things that are supposed to be for professional or Youth football (to go with all the others I mentioned in my last Chairman's Blog ).

I know this is a rule in professional football and the top levels of Non-League, but Sunday League teams like us cannot afford to buy a second set of shorts and socks of a different colour.

I have already spoken to one Referee who says he is not going to enforce it, so hopefully the rest of them will show the same common sense.

lol

I had a chat with the Ebbsfleet United Secretary when I filmed their match on Saturday and he told me it is NOT an F.A. rule that teams cannot wear the same colour shorts (or even socks) and is not a rule in the Conference (Blue Square Premier) either. It is entirely up to Referees if they want clubs to wear different colour shorts and none of them ever worry about it, even at that level.
Ebbsfleet are Away to Woking in the F.A. Cup this coming Saturday and the clubs have already confirmed their colours with both teams wearing white shorts.

The Ebbsfleet Secretary also ran the Gravesend & District Saturday League up until it folded at the end of last season and he said it wasn't a rule in that League and he has never heard such nonsense (or words to that effect).

So...as I suspected, it is our League being silly again.

Yeah, come to think of it, I'm pretty sure Spurs and Villa were both wearing white shorts in the prem last Sunday...