Blackpool solve tangerine nightmare

npower Championship side Blackpool have come up with a solution to an unusual problem facing some Evo-Stik NPL clubs.

Any team, or goalkeeper for that matter, that wears orange on matchdays will be aware of the difficulty in purchasing under armour of the same colour. Under FA rules match officials are not permitted to allow players to wear visible under garments that are a different colour to their shirt or shorts and with temperatures taking a dip at this time of year, it has proved a problem for both referees and players alike recently.

However, the Seasiders - whofamously feature the colour tangerine heavily in both their home and away kits - have come up with a solution.

Following a raft of requests from teams all around the country, last season’s Premier League outfit have decided to offer for sale the tangerine under layers worn by their players and it was brought about by a rather quirky conversation with Vauxhall Motors goalkeeper Scott Tynan in a match at Hyde United back in December.

One of the match officials that day at Ewen Fields was Richard Wild, who is also Head of Retail at Blackpool FC and he takes up the story.

“Before the match Scott asked permission to wear black under armour underneath his orange goalkeeping shirt. He pointed out it was impossible to buy orange under armour anywhere in the country but even so match officials simply cannot contravene FA guidelines on match kit as a result and therefore permission to wear it was sadly denied.

"However, we quickly struck a deal that if he didn’t wear the black under armour for the game that I would provide him with orange one before his next match. As you’d imagine he looked rather perplexed by how I was going to do that but it was soon explained to him that for a living - I worked for Blackpool FC and therefore getting under armour of this colour wasn’t a problem.

“Since that day, and several times last season as well, we have been contacted by teams throughout the country asking if we could sell them orange (or tangerine as it is known in Blackpool) under armour.

"It is relatively easy for us to simply get more of the shirts and shorts in this colour and therefore in conjunction with our kit suppliers FILA we decided to offer it for sale to the general public.

“It isn’t really a money making exercise for ourselves, more offering a product that nobody else can provide whilst at the same time solving a problem that currently exists for players and referees all around the country.

"The under layer itself is simply branded with a small FILA logo and doesn’t carry any Blackpool FC branding at all and fully complies with FA guidelines. Hopefully it will make life a little easier and save any potential problems for teams who don orange throughout the season.”

Players wishing to purchase either the shirts or shorts can do so directly from the Blackpool FC Online Store and have it shipped direct to their home address or teams wishing to purchase in bigger quantities can contact Richard direct via richard.wild@blackpoolfc.co.uk.