The Ugly Game

In case you hadn’t already guessed I’m not really into my football (gasp) – in fact I’m missing the whole competitive sport gene in general (although thankfully not the competitive gene per se). Not only do I not get the obsession with “The Beautiful Game”, but as far as I’m concerned the dress sense of your average fan leaves a lot to be desired. I’ve never been into herd mentality dressing, so the thought of turning up to an event wearing the same thing (let alone a polyester t-shirt with someone else’s name emblazoned on the back) as a few thousand other people has never really appealed to me. I therefore had to laugh when I received the following email today;

Dear Si,

I hope this finds you well.

I wanted to let you know about a collection of limited edition product Grosvenor Shirts have created with FIFA / Global Brands for the 2010 World Cup™ as I thought it would be of interest to for any relevant World Cup features, news round ups, product round up you may be working on….

Erm, no. Never. Not in a million years. Please see said shirts below….

…..speechless? Yes, so was I. Thankfully I’ve now regained my composure, and can whole-heartedly say that these are truly THE most disturbing garments I’ve seen in while. I’m at a total loss as to the circumstances in which you’d think – Hhhmmm, I need to dress smartly, but still want to express my total love and devotion to my national football team. Ha, I know my £200 (YES - £200!) white, premium, 2 fold Royal Twill limited editition2010 World Cup™ shirt should do the trick...I’m sorry, but there’s just no need for them…in fact, I’ll give a prize to anyone who can give me a legitimate fashion related reason for their existence....in fact, i'll buy you one myself!

And there I was naively thinking the football shirt couldn’t slip further down the barometer of good taste. We live and learn.