Is There A Jinx On Striped Shirts?

Newcastle United have developed a reputation as the notorious under-achievers of English football. Many explanations have been put forward, but could the solution be a simple change of kit?

The idea that the shirt design can affect the on-field performance of a team sounds like a bizarre notion until the recent record of English professional teams that play in stripes is examined closely.

15 of the 92 League clubs have a first team strip involving stripes. They include many famous names, like Newcastle, Sunderland and Sheffield Wednesday, but their collective glory days are so far gone that it seems there might be a jinx on stripes.

The last time a team wearing this kind of shirt triumphed in the English top division was 1936, when Sunderland were champions, that’s a massive 72 years since a striped club last took the title.

Compare that to the 43 titles that were awarded before 1936, when no less than nineteen went to clubs in stripes. Sunderland, Newcastle, Sheffield Wednesday, Huddersfield Town, Sheffield United and West Bromwich Albion were all champions before World War Two.

In the FA Cup, the decline came later, but it is there none the less. The last of the striped clubs to be Cup winners was Southampton, in 1976 and even then they didn’t wear them in the Final. Playing Manchester United, the Saints had to change from their red and white to yellow.

Sunderland are the last team to win the FA Cup wearing their stripes, in 1973; before the Mackems’ epic, West Bromwich Albion also wore a change strip of yellow when they lifted the Cup in 1968.

Back in the 1950’s banded colours were in the limelight, Newcastle lifted the trophy three times, West Brom chipped in once and Manchester City got in on the act, as they wore a striped version of their kit in those days.

All of the most famous teams wearing this kind of strip are in relative decline. Newcastle haven’t won anything since 1969, Sunderland can’t stay in the Premiership, the two Sheffield clubs are stuck in the Championship and Southampton nearly dropped to League One last season.

A huge amount of energy is expended in the media and by fans trying to decide what is wrong with Newcastle United. There’s one glaringly obvious answer that they haven’t tried yet; change the strip.

It may be an off the wall idea, but perhaps abandoning the stripes would send out a message, new kit, new era. Now that referees don’t turn out in a black kit anymore there’s nothing to stop Newcastle losing the white stripe.

Changing strips and club colours is a massively emotive issue, but it has happened before. Don Revie ditched Leeds United’s blue and yellow, in the early 1960’s, for all white, in imitation of the great Real Madrid.

Burnley once played in green, but decided it was too unlucky a colour and copied Aston Villa’s claret and blue, as the Midlands side were the dominant team at the time. Newcastle have tried everything else, so why not swap to predominantly black or white and end the hoodoo? Get a branded usb drive to commemorate your favourite shirt.