Africa Unity Third Shirt

This is one of those marmite shirts you either love or hate. I’m on the love side as I think it’s a pretty nice design by Puma which was officially the third shirt for all African countries in 2010 to coincide with the South African World Cup.

Despite it being the third shirt for every country, I believe this was only actually worn twice in matches. The first was a special exhibition match between an All Star XI and Cameroon. I’m also informed that Namibia wore the shirt in a friendly against South Africa. The good old Namibians.

It’s a shame that such a specially designed shirt was used so sparingly but there you go. The shirt actually comes with a choice of badges that you can put on the shirt yourself which is a nice touch although I’m not even going to try and do it as it would end in the shirt being destroyed!

Africa and number 10 is also printed on the back. This is a shirt I’ve been looking to get for a while and luckily the brilliant Classic Football Shirts had them at a reasonable price so I took the plunge. Thank God for CFS!

Occitania Match Worn Home Shirt

Occitania are one of the most regular and long-standing non-FIFA international teams. Having competed pretty consistently since 2005, they have been around for a while and have had quite a lot of success. They were originally formed to preserve the medieval language of Occitan which is spoken in areas of Italy, France and Spain.

They’ve competed in four of the five VIVA World Cups and were an NF Board member before also becoming a member of ConIFA. They will feature in this summer’s ConIFA World Football Cup in Ostersund, Sweden and have a good chance of doing well.

They finished third twice in the VIVA World Cup, finished fifth in both Europeada tournaments and most recently won last year’s Tynwald Hill Tournament, beating Sealand, Tamil Eeelam and St Johns United on the way. From what I can see, their last game was a 7-1 win over Galicia in December and come into the World Football Cup full of confidence and experience.

I’d like to thank Occitania captain Boris Massare, who plays in the Danish second division, for helping out immensely in getting hold of this shirt. It is their home shirt which was worn in the 2009 VIVA World Cup in Padania. Boris himself is a very interesting character having hitch-hiked to the VIVA World Cup in Kurdistan as well as the Tynwald Hill Tournament. He then proceeded to sleep on the beach in the Isle of Man!

The shirt itself is very striking with the tartan like design and is obviously a bit more special having been match worn and featuring my favourite number on the back. I’ll be cheering Boris and his team-mates on in Sweden!

British Army Long Sleeve, Match Worn Away Shirt

The second British Army shirt to be added to the blog following yesterday’s addition of the home shirt. You can read more about that and the British Army football team here.

This is the away or alternative shirt the British Army used, I believe in 2011/12. There is a 90th anniversary Royal British Legion patch on the left arm and it was formed in 1921 which would make 90 years 2011.

Similarly to the home shirt, I also got this one from Thomas (@FootballShirt11) and he believes it is also match worn which would explain the number 17 on the back. The shirt itself is lovely and again includes lots of nice details like the home version.

The lack of sponsor makes it all the better in my opinion and I’m very glad to be able to add another Army shirt as well as my first ever match worn one to the blog!

Tibet Home Shirt

The first team to make a double appearance on the blog are ‘The Forbidden Team’ Tibet.

This is their current COPA home shirt which I quite fancied. When purchasing the Greenland shirt, I noticed they had these Tibet shirts at a very good price so decided to add one to my order.

If you want to read more about Tibet and their footballing journey, check out the other Tibet shirt post.

COPA decided to take up the Tibet national shirts and they’ve made a very nice job if it. The colours are great and are of course based on the Tibet flag.

They’ve also included an imprint of the lions, also on the Tibet flag, on the front of the shirt. I tried to take a close-up picture but it’s quite hard to see on camera. Hats off to COPA for taking their time and making a really unique shirt.

Tibet Long Sleeve Home Shirt

Often referred to as ‘The Forbidden Team’ after the documentary that followed their preparations for the first ever Tibet game in history against Greenland in 2001. Most people think of the Dalai Lama rather than the beautiful game when it comes to Tibet.

But football hasn’t come easily to Tibet. The controversary surrounding the game against Greenland grabbed headlines, mostly down to China playing party pooper (China, meet Spain…) and trying to get the game called off. Politics has no place in football. Or so you’ll be told…

Fortunately the game did go ahead and Tibet were recognised on the world stage albeit following a 4-1 defeat. Unsurprisingly, the team, based in India, hasn’t had much success on the field.

The team competed in the Wild Cup as well as the ELF Cup in 2006 but since then haven’t played a great deal with funding, I assume, being the biggest hurdle. From what I can tell they’ve not played recently and hopefully that will change.

If not, Tibet will have enjoyed their time in the football limelight and it may just have led to more people being educated about their strife.

The shirt itself is an older design from Hummel and they always seem to do a good job. The Tibet FA badge is awesome and the Tibet flag is on the arm – it also includes the lace detail included on a lot of old English club shirts. Their current shirt made by Copa is also very awesome and may find its way into my collection at some stage…

Quebec Home Shirt

Most non-FIFA sides say their mission is to share their culture and language through football. Most seem distanced and disillusioned by their surroundings and if any side can lay claim to that feeling surely it’s Quebec.

The Canadian province speak a different language to the rest of their country which I imagine is pretty tough at times. Imagine not being able to talk to the north of England because they all spoke a different language? Ok, a bad example…

They only started playing non-FIFA internationals last year at the International Peoples, Cultures, and Tribes Tournament, beating a Tibet Select side, Provence and an Armenian Select team. They lost to Kurdistan in the semi-final but it was a decent debut. They have a number of players from MLS side Montreal Impact who are obviously of a good standard.

Now the Quebecois are a member of ConIFA and will be competing in the World Football Cup in June. They have been drawn with Darfur and non-FIFA heavyweights Padania in Group C. The Quebec and Padania match should be very interesting indeed.

The shirt itself is very nice and a big thank you to the Quebec Football Association for helping me out. The shirt is made by Italian firm Mass who make a lot of Uruguayan club team’s jerseys. There are a lot of nice details on the shirt such as the Quebec flag on the arm and of course the fleur-de-lis on the chest. I always like to see those kind of things on national shirts – it really makes it stand out from the bland ‘stock’ designs that a lot of bigger nations have.

Allez Les Quebecois!

Guadeloupe Third Shirt

   

My first non-FIFA shirt and the first on this blog! I received my first three shirts today and in terms of just design, I think this is my favourite – it’s just a lovely looking shirt.

I’m led to believe this is Guadeloupe’s third shirt (the home and away are the same design but are predominantly green and white respectively) and it’s very nice indeed.

In terms of their story, Guadeloupe is a bit of a strange one. They’re not a FIFA member but are affiliated with CONCACAF so can compete in the Gold Cup and Caribbean Cup.

The main reason Guadeloupe haven’t been allowed into FIFA is that they’re an overseas territory of France. Being an overseas territory doesn’t seem to have stopped others (US Virgin Islands anyone?).

It’s also a shame as Guadeloupe, like Suriname, have missed out on some potential superstars turning out in their colours.

Thierry Henry ring a bell? He could have played for Guadeloupe alongside Nicholas Anelka, Lillian Thuram and William Gallas. Even without the big names, Guadeloupe are one of the stronger sides in the Caribbean.

In the 2010 Caribbean Cup, the Guadeloupeans got all the way to the final before losing to Jamaica in the final. They have also done well in recent Gold Cups beating the likes of Canada and Honduras.

Until France help their cause or Guadeloupe move further away politically from their ‘parent’, Les Gwada Boys might have to be content with CONCACAF tournaments.

But if FIFA acceptance does come, don’t be surprised to see Guadeloupe cause a few upsets along the way. And maybe then more people will own their awesome shirts!