Why do Manchester United fans wear yellow-green scarves?

Recently, adidas’ decision to create a green kit for Manchester United has upset part of the club’s supporters and has surprised most football fans. Green is not the first color that comes to mind when you think of Manchester United but at the same time it is not a stranger to the club’s history. Originally, Manchester United used yellow and green as their main colors combined in vertical stripes. This happened back in 1890 when the team used to play under the name Newton Heath LYR Football Club, the first ever denomination of the club. In 1902, the team's name and colors were altered, paving the way for the present-day Manchester United and their red jerseys. And from that moment on, yellow and green disappeared almost completely from Manchester United’s kits.

The only brand that dared to bring back green and yellow has been Umbro between 1992 and 1994 for the 100th anniversary of the club’s first ever participation to the Premier League. To celebrate the occasion, they created a jersey that for shapes, style and colors paid tribute to the club’s iconic jersey. It had two rectangles of the same size, one yellow and one green, that shared the same amount of space both on the front and on the back of the jersey. Green had a slight predominance as it was used for the sleeves and the collar too. The collar and its details made this jersey immortal as Umbro took the gamble to associate a polo collar with small cords, the most simple and effective reference to the jerseys used back in the 800’s. To complete the kit, the jersey was combined with black shorts and socks.

Green and yellow kits might have been disappeared from the pitch, but you can’t tell the same about the stands. Those two colors have become the symbol of fans’ disappointment towards the way the Glazer family has run the club over the last years. In 2010, the first sighting of yellow and green scarves occurred when Manchester United fans feared that the Glazer would have led the club into financial ruin, much like what happened to Portsmouth at the same time, the first Premier League club to ever enter receivership. The pinnacle of those complaints come in February of that year when United played against Aston Villa in the League Cup final. The Wembley’s sector occupied by the United’s supporters was invaded by yellow and green scarves before the kick-off.

David Beckham too, even if unintentionally, took part of these complaints as in March 2010, when he visited for the first time Old Trafford as an opponent playing for AC Milan, he collected a yellow and green scarf that had been thrown from the stands. More recently, the scarves were clearly visible in 2021 when the supporters protested the club’s decision to join the Super League and again at the beginning of last season, fans showed their disappointment towards the team’s bad results by bringing out their yellow and green scarves. To put it another way, green has been a significant part of Manchester United's heritage but in this moment of time it is a color that belongs more to the fans rather than to the ownership, it is the distinctive feature of those who take pride in the club's fortunes.