Liverpool vs Manchester United: Colour blind fans ‘angry’ at choice of kits

Kits looked almost identical in colour to fans with both red-black and red-green strands of colour blindness

Alex Pattle
Wednesday 20 January 2021 10:39 GMT
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(Manchester United via Getty Imag)

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Colour blind fans have expressed anger and disappointment at the choice of kits in Liverpool and Manchester United’s Premier League fixture last Sunday.

Champions Liverpool and then-league leaders United competed for top spot in the top flight, with the rivals playing out a 0-0 draw at Anfield.

Liverpool sported their traditional red home strip in the game, while visitors United wore a particularly dark shade of green.

And numerous colour blind viewers took to social media to speak about the difficulty they had differentiating between the two teams.

READ MORE: Man City the only winners as Liverpool and United pay price for timidity

United’s ‘Legend Earth’ kit appears black to many, meaning viewers with both red-black and red-green strands of colour blindness struggled while watching the match.

“As I understand it, Manchester United were told there was going to be a kit clash and they decided the best way to deal with that would just be to change the socks,” Kathryn Albany-Ward, CEO of Colour Blind Awareness told Sky Sports.

“That obviously wasn’t a sufficient solution. I think that’s partly because of the lack of awareness of what the condition means at the top level in clubs and they don’t understand what colour blindness is.

“The thing that I find bizarre more than anything else is that the numbers of people affected means the players will also be affected. In their squads, they will have colour blind players who also need to be able to tell the teams apart really clearly and that is something that is not being investigated. If they get it right for the players, they get it right for the fans.”

Albany-Ward continued: “There is guidance out there. There is Uefa guidance, which explains everything, and people are just not taking it seriously. 

“Fans are getting very angry now, that’s for sure.”

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