The Colour of Football

Why Some National Teams Wear a Colour That Doesn’t Match Their Flag

When national teams line up for the anthems in their home colours, you’d be forgiven for assuming that the kits reflect the flags they play under. Spain wears red, Argentina sky blue, Brazil yellow…

Straightforward, right? Well, not always.

Some of the world’s most recognisable football teams wear kits that bear little resemblance to their national flags. From the Netherlands’ tangerine hue to Japan’s samurai blue, these colours aren’t just chosen at random. They’re often steeped in history and national symbolism.

Japan 🇯🇵

Japan’s national team wears a striking shade of electric blue, despite no trace of it on their minimalistic flag. Its origin is murkier than with most countries, and several theories exist.

One lies in academia on the islands. Some early 20th century university teams, like Tokyo Imperial and Keio, played in blue. This could have organically bled into international football when it came to Japan in the 1930s.

The use of the colour could also be more symbolic than historic. In Japanese culture, blue is positively associated with calmness, stability and reliability - pretty good connotations in a team sport.

Japan’s choice could also have been more strategic. It’s possible that the adoption of blue was driven by a desire to stand out among East Asian neighbours, like China, South Korea and Vietnam, who all play in red.

Netherlands 🇳🇱

The Dutch national team proudly wears oranje, which again, doesn’t appear on their flag. The reason is straightforward but deeply rooted. Orange represents the House of Orange-Nassau, the Dutch royal family.

William of Orange led the fight for Dutch independence in the 16th century, and was a key figure in the revolt against Spanish Habsburg rule during the Eighty Years War. The colour has become a lasting symbol of national pride, and even the anthem, Het Wilhelmus, was named in his honour.

The Dutch flag did actually feature orange at one stage. The earliest iteration in the 16th century was orange, white and blue, known as the Prinsenvlag - the Prince’s Flag. Over time, orange was replaced by red - likely due to poor visibility in thick fog at sea.

India 🇮🇳

India’s national team is known as the Blue Tigers. Blue is only subtly present on the flag, in the form of the dark blue Ashoka Chakra - the 24-spoke wheel in the centre.

Pre-Partition teams often wore blue kits, potentially influenced by the colours of the Union Jack. The Indian cricket team, the most culturally significant sports team in the country, also wears blue. As India’s most popular sport by far, it’s perfectly plausible that cricket would lead the way here.

But beyond legacy, there’s a cultural layer to consider. In Indian tradition, Hindu deities Krishna and Vishnu are often depicted with blue skin, which represents godly power.

Germany 🇩🇪

Deutschland’s home kit has traditionally been white shirts with black shorts - a contrast to the modern horizontal tricolour flag. The kit’s colour scheme comes from Prussia, the historic kingdom that led the initial unification of Germany in the 19th century.

Prussia’s colours were black and white, and early 20th century German teams under the Kaiserreich adopted them as a unifying choice.

After the First World War and the abdication of the Kaiser, the newly-formed Weimar Republic introduced the black-red-gold flag we know today. Yet, the football kit remained untouched. This continuity persisted through successive regimes, including the Nazi era and the post-war divided Germanys, despite further flag evolution.

Australia 🇦🇺

Australia’s national colours of green and gold don’t come from its flag, but from its flora - specifically the golden wattle. Representing Australian resilience, the national flower gave the public a national identity rooted in the native environment, rather than colonial heritage.

Green and gold were formally adopted as Australia’s national colours in 1984, but had been used in sport, particularly cricket, long before that. The cricket team started wearing baggy green caps and gold-trimmed blazers in the late 19th century.

The football team followed suit, aligning itself with the native identity rather than the controversially imperial symbolism of the flag. For the Socceroos, adopting the beloved green and gold helped them earn cross-sport support in Australia.

Italy 🇮🇹

Italy are nicknamed gli Azzurri - the Blues. But blue is nowhere to be seen on the Italian tricolour.

Blue was the colour of the House of Savoy - the royal family that played a central role in the Risorgimento. During this period in the 19th century, the independent kingdoms of Italy were unified under central rule.

Even when Italy became a republic following the death of fascist dictator Mussolini in the 1940s, the colour stayed. It lives on today as a celebration of a united Italy.

New Zealand 🇳🇿

New Zealand’s men’s team is nicknamed the All Whites - a deliberate contrast to the better-known All Blacks of rugby.

The official flag, with its explicit colonial association, has been debated for decades. A 2016 referendum on adopting a new flag that bore the silver fern, a long-standing national emblem, ultimately failed. However, it did highlight a disconnect between the flag and public opinion.

New Zealand’s pure white kit doesn’t reflect the national flag at all, but it is a key component of NZ’s unofficial sporting identity. From netball to rowing, Kiwi teams often wear either black or white gear.

When the football team qualified for their first FIFA World Cup in 1982, they wore the all-white kit to prevent colour clashes with the darker colours of opponents during qualification.

South Africa 🇿🇦

South Africa’s flag is famously colourful. It was designed as an overt symbol of diversity post-Apartheid. Yet the national football team, Bafana Bafana, wear just green and gold.

These colours come from SA’s sporting tradition, which, by far, predates the 1994 introduction of the current flag. During the Apartheid era of racial segregation, white South African teams wore green and gold in other British-imported sports like cricket and rugby, which were strictly off-limits to sportsmen and women belonging to the black majority.

When the discriminatory system was dismantled in the early 1990s, the colours were retained by a more representative national side.

England 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿

England’s white shirts are, of course, tied to the flag of St George, but the consistent use of navy blue shorts and detailing isn’t derived from any English national symbol.

The roots of this colour pairing lie partly in early football history. In the late 19th century, navy blue was a common fixture in British sports kits - valued for its practicality and contrast against white. While Scotland is more famously associated with navy blue as a national colour, English club sides often adopted it for similar reasons.

A traditionally conservative colour, it also aligns with football’s self-image as a game of tradition. We see this especially in the Three Lions crest, and the FA itself has used navy in its branding and formal wear, reinforcing the colour’s association with English football.

In recent years, manufacturer Nike has experimented with lighter blues and bolder reds, but navy remains a persistent feature.