Pink may make the boys wink but not this Sports Editor…

Watching or playing a sport is one thing, but when you see your favourite sporting star on the pitch, do you pay attention to what they are wearing?

Millions of euro are spent every year designing, producing and launching soccer, rugby and GAA jerseys. The launch of the new Irish rugby jersey was attended by the entire national team and a horde of media. The news that Dublin GAA are to change the sponsor on their jersey from Arnotts rocked an entire city this summer, as thousands of men living on the “glory days” of 1995 realised that their jerseys were at last a bit outdated. Soccer fans debated endlessly over Bolton’s “barcode” and Celtic’s tartan jerseys. Sports kits are a big deal these days.

Why? After all, a jersey could be considered superfluous- you are there to watch the match, not the jersey. The truth is, jerseys and kits are a big deal because there is big money in them. In August, Chicago-based insurer Aon Corp committed more than $125 million over four years (beginning next year) to be the new main sponsor of Manchester United.To put that in perspective, that’s very near to the entire income of an African country like Malawi over a year.

Getting away from the financial prerogatives for releasing a new jersey every year, many teams seem to just want to look good. While GAA kits generally adhere to the same template (because most are made by O’Neills or Azzurri) , soccer and rugby kits seem to be getting progressively more outlandish every year.

A classic example is Manchester United’s “Madchester” jersey from 1992, favoured by Stone Roses fans the world over. This was in many ways a pioneer for ‘trendy’ sports jerseys.

From that initial footstep into the shiny waters of trendiness, we have somehow arrived at the modern-day gaudiness espoused by teams like Partick Thistle and Wexford Youths, who insist on making people sit through the endless “fairy” chants levelled at them during matches due to their unecessarily bright pink jerseys.

Rugby too has veered towards more eccentric kit designs of late. This season we have the Leinster “blue streak”- loved and loathed in equal measure (I amn’t a fan anyway.) Mention “eccentric” and “rugby jerseys” in the same breath, however, and one name consistently pops up. Stade Francais.

The French outfit have, for the last few seasons, sported brilliantly bizarre home and away kits. We’ve had Warhol-esque portraits, squiggly pink shapes and pink flowers on Stade jerseys. Every year the release of the Stade jersey is eagerly awaited. What next?

I for one, yearn for the days when sport kits stuck to the colours of the club, didn’t have massive sponsors splashed across their fronts and didn’t feel the need to alienate half the fans by using the most figure-hugging fabric possible (never good for armchair supporters.)