When Chelsea played a match in the Coventry City kit

On April 9, 1997, a date now far in the past, Chelsea was forced to play an away match against Coventry City wearing the home team's away kit. It is one of those almost forgotten stories, and probably only someone who has played football, even just for a year, can imagine the embarrassment of being in such a situation. I mean, having to borrow a shirt from your opponents is far from ideal, especially if it’s an away game and there’s a risk of being mocked by the opposing crowd, especially if the result is negative. This episode with Chelsea is (almost) a unique case. After all, how often can it happen in football history (especially if we narrow the search to top clubs) that a team forgets to bring their own kits on an away trip?

Similar Cases to Chelsea's

Considering big clubs and national teams, there are two other similar cases to Chelsea's with the Coventry City shirt. The first concerns Marseille (and it’s the most recent), during the 2007/08 season, when the French side was forced to play with Auxerre's away kit, even losing 2-0. A funny anecdote, especially since Djibril Cissé ended up wearing the shirt he had started his football career with. In 1993, the Italian Under-21 National Team also wore a shirt that wasn’t theirs in a match against Croatia. However, it wasn’t the opponents’ shirt, but rather that of Nissa Calcio, an amateur club from Caltanissetta, where the game was being played. In fact, the Azzurri staff searched the locker rooms and the stadium’s storeroom, eventually finding a red shirt, which became the only red shirt ever worn by Italy.

The astonishment from that situation was truly rare, and you can still see it today in the faces of Gianfranco Zola, or Frank Leboeuf, Gianluca Vialli, and Roberto Di Matteo. These were the names of that Chelsea team managed by Gullit, which ended the 1996/97 season in 6th place in the Premier League and managed to avoid relegation by miracle, drawing 3-3 with Coventry City in that match.

Among other curiosities, Chelsea paired that shirt with the shorts from their home kit, as the Blues had only forgotten the shirt in London, not the socks or the shorts. The Coventry City shirt they had to wear was checkered in blue and red. For that season, the club, in its first year of sponsorship with Le Coq Sportif, had chosen an away kit similar to the goalkeeper’s. Still checkered, but with a combination of navy blue and red, unlike the goalkeeper kits which were yellow and black, and another was light green and dark green. This pattern served as inspiration for the Away shirt of Coventry City for the 2023/24 season.