England are playing Australia in the semi-finals of the Women’s World Cup 2023 - and the co-hosts are naturally in their home kit of gold and green.
But, in football lore, the away side would only wear a secondary or tertiary strip if there is a colour clash.
England - in case you didn’t know - wear white and it would be a person who needs their eyes tested who thinks it could be mistaken with the Matilda’s jerseys.
So fans were confused on Wednesday when the Lionesses took to Stadium Australia’s turf wearing... blue.
England in blue. Not sure why we need to wear an away kit pic.twitter.com/MrI2mOBO8O
— Sunder Katwala (@sundersays) August 16, 2023
“England in blue,” wrote Sunder Katwala on Twitter. “Not sure why we need to wear an away kit.”
Spider Gwyn tweeted: “It makes no sense for England to have blue kits when their flag is just red and white.
“And like 70 per cent of the rest of the world has blue somewhere on their flag. Go red or just go outlandish with like, magenta or something.”
England will be in their blue away kit in Wednesday's semi-final against Australia. pic.twitter.com/I57P3XQtGo
— Rich Laverty (@RichJLaverty) August 13, 2023
Well, she may have got her wish as goalkeeper Mary Earps is wearing magenta - while the referee is wearing red. Aussie goalkeeper Mackenzie Arnold is back in black.
Why are England wearing blue against Australia?
The decision as to who wears what for each game is down to Fifa.
Officials assess colour overlap and whether the tones could affect the vision of players but also fans who might be colourblind.
So, Fifa has decided that it is best for all if England play in blue - and if it leads to one pass being directed to a Lionesses rather than a Matilda, it might be worth it.
England and Australia played out a friendly in April where blue was again selected to be the kit for the Lionesses. England lost 0-2 that day.
