Senegal 2018 Home

Scotland 1994-96 Home Matchworn/Prepared Stewart McKimmie v Greece
Scotland 2003-05 Home Matchworn/prepared
Scotland 2003-05 Away Matchworn/prepared
Scotland 2005-07 Away Matchworn/prepared
Scotland 2005-07 Third Matchworn/prepared
Scotland 2007-08 GK Matchworn/prepared U21
Scotland 2010-11 Home

Let’s start things off with probably the greatest Scotland shirt of all time. Tartan is unequivocally Scottish and using it across the front and rear of the shirt stands out enough to be noticeable but not enough to be garish. It looks lovely. The sleeves stay comparatively plain, which actually helps highlight the tartan, particularly with it making a reappearance on the cuffs. Then you have the deep purple along the tops of the sleeves and the collar and the massively elaborate old FA crest. There’s a lot to this shirt and I can’t think of a single criticism for it, absolutely superb.

Easily one of the best runners-up, Scotland qualified for Euro 1996 in this design and then used it in the tournament itself. They managed to beat Finland, the Faroe Islands and San Marino home and away (all three away matches were 2-0), though only managed 1-0 at home to Finland. Greece proved a together challenge, with them trading 1-0 wins for their only loss of the campaign, but two draws with Russia kept them 5 points clear of 3^rd place. Sadly, at the tournament itself, Scotland came agonisingly close, but just short. A respectable 0-0 draw with the Netherlands and a 2-0 loss to England at Wembley left them on the brink but a 1-0 win over Switzerland was enough to…draw them level on points, head-to-head and goal difference with the Netherlands. Scotland went out on goals scored.

So, we start off with four women’s shirts. Diadora didn’t exactly set the world alight for Scotland, and the home is indicative of everything wrong with Diadora. Utterly plain, with a little white accenting but almost nothing else to it. The golden Diadora logo is nice, but a strange colour in comparison to the rest of the shirt. With the away, we have deep, Scottish blue across the shoulders and on the sleeve cuffs. It also appears in the stitching across the panels. Making that visible isn’t ideal but does add some colour to the body of the shirt. The central logos and number work well here too, but it still ends up pretty plain.

Used across Euro 2005 qualifiers, the Scottish women fell a single point short of the play-offs. Top seeds Germany beat them home and away (though they put up stiff resistance at home) and they traded wins with the Czechs. However, an away loss in Ukraine against a Czech draw in the same situation put them agonisingly close to a chance at the final tournament.

Moving on to the next shirts, the red in a men’s fit will bring back bad memories for Scotsmen. Both are fairly plain. However, the light blue saltire and bronze numbers for the away and deep maroon colour coupled with gold trimmings for the third work rather well to make them stand out. The number not staying in the centre of the cross is a definite disappointment though. Definitely a pair of kits that stand out for good reasons, changing the badge subtly on the third kit works really well too.

These styles of kits were used for 2007 World Cup qualifiers, though these sadly were a disaster, gaining a win and a draw off both the Republic of Ireland and Switzerland and losing every other game. However, Germany and Russia put 19 goals past them without reply in their 4 matches and they were left on only 8 points, 10 behind the Russians and 16 behind the qualificants, Germany.

Then we have an U21 GK shirt. The classic Diadora template, all black but with the distinctive gold and white stripe down one side. There’s a little bit of the same at the end of the right sleeve and some gold trim down the sides of the shirt. Again all centralised logos and numbers work pretty well. The numbers are a little thick, they stand out clearly enough as it is but not much to complement or complain about.

Overall, the design was used across Euro 2008 qualifiers which will be remembered by Scots for the wrong reasons. They managed to beat France home and away, stumbling slightly in the Ukraine but lost both matches to Italy. Had they won all their other games against Lithuania, Georgia and the Faroe Islands they would have qualified. However, there was what became termed as the “Georgia disaster” where Scotland were downed 2-0 in Tblisi to leave them two points short.

Last, but not least, is this Adidas shirt, with the Scotland crest pressed across the front to liven up an otherwise boring shirt. White trim ends three quarters of the way up the shirt and the classic Adidas stripes are curtailed to allow for patches. Collar also feels slightly too large, but these are minor nitpicks. Without that crest though, this would be an awful shirt, make no mistake.

Prior to 2000, Scotland’s men have a proud footballing history, with 8 World Cup appearances (and 8 group stage exits, a record without ever reaching the 2^nd round), 2 Euros qualifications and never finishing below 2^nd in their WCQ group. However, they’ve not reached a major tournament since 1998 and have dipped alarmingly in the rankings, starting the Nations League in League C (albeit getting promoted). A team that have had some truly great players along with possibly the greatest (Ally’s Army) and the worst (Don’t Come Home too Soon) World Cup songs ever, it is a shame to see them fall so far.

Scotland’s women mainly improved in recent years, though they had some good results in their early years. They reached the 2009 and 2013 euros play-offs, the 2015 World Cup play-offs, the 2017 Euros and the 2019 World Cup, though have yet to progress past the knockouts. They’ve participated in fewer Cyprus and Algarve Cups recently, mainly having played in the former, but have fairly consistently finished in the middle of the pack. They did win the inaugural Pinatur Cup in 2020, beating Iceland, Ukraine and Northern Ireland. Their youth teams have been very active, in qualification and friendly tournaments. For the men, success mainly comes before 2000 again, with 3 U21 euros semi-finals, 2 U20 World Cup quarter-finals (plus 2007 group stages), a victory and three 3rds in the U18 Euros and runners-up at the 1989 U16 World Cup. Since 1998, they’ve been runners-up at the 2006 U19 Euros, but that’s not quite the same. The women’s youth sides have been to 6 U19 Euros and 1 U17 Euros but only managed a win and 3 draws across all 7 tournaments. They’re yet to make the same mark as the senior side.

Possibly due to the typical weather they get, Scotland have never participated in any form of beach soccer. Futsal has proved a little better, with attempts to qualify for the Euros since 2016 and the 2020 World Cup. A draw with Armenia in Euro 2022 qualifiers is their only point in their history. In the Home Nations Championship they’ve come 3^rd three times and 4^th once. It does not appear to be a priority sport for them.

Scotland managed to reach Euro 2020 and perform reasonably, but qualification for 2022 was considered a very tough ask. One of few teams to be consistent, Scotland secured a play-off space behind Denmark, trading 2-0 wins with the Danes (in the Danes’ only loss of the campaign) but also dropping points in draws with Austria and Israel. A home tie against Ukraine and then an away tie against the winner of Wales v Austria awaits them in their quest for Qatar 2022.

Saudi Arabia 2018 Home

São Tomé e Príncipe 2018 Away
São Tomé e Príncipe 2019-20 Home
São Tomé e Príncipe 2019-20 Away

Now you’re unlikely to have heard of Ekis as a brand and you likely won’t again. As far as I know, this is their sole foray into national football shirt manufacturing but they certainly didn’t disappoint in design (though they did in quality). Both shirts were glorious, essentially slapping their spectacular flag across the players’ bodies. Considering both very yellow and green, you have to wonder what would’ve happened if they played Ethiopia for instance? Colourful and gloriously mad, how can you not like it?

Used solely in the two games against Equatorial Guinea for the 2019 U23 AFCON qualifiers, São Tomé drew 1-1 away before losing 3-1 at home. This knocked them out of contention and the design appears to have been retired. No photo evidence exists of the away game where they may have worn this design.

Next up two very boring Lacatoni designs. Normally known for their vast sublimated detail, the best they’ve given us here is an embroidered logo and two entire colours! Very little to say here and a big disappointment compared to the other shirt.

These shirts have been used a little more, having been used in the 6 games of 2021 AFCON qualifying to date. Their preliminary round matches against Mauritius resulted in home and away wins, for the first time in their history, with a 2-1 and a 3-1 victory. They’ve lost all 4 group stage games though and already are eliminated from qualifying with 2 games to spare. However, they only lost by a single goal to Ghana and were 5 minutes away from a draw with South Africa. They’ll look to the game against Sudan for a chance at points.

Being one of CAF’s lowest ranked nations, these results are fairly typical for São Tomé, a team that’ve won only 9 senior games in their history. Highlights from their history include a 8 year gap in competitive play between 2003 and 2011, a 1-0 aggregate win over Lesotho and a subsequent exciting 5-4 aggregate loss to Sierra Leone in 2012 (their only other round progression), and draws/wins against Ethiopia, Libya, the Republic of the Congo and Sierra Leone. They have also participated in the UNIFAC Cup in 1999, but a solitary win against Equatorial Guinea came after 4 straight losses. Their only attempt at CHAN qualification resulted in two 2-0 losses to Cameroon.

It is no great surprise, considering the men’s team’s being relatively inactive, that the women’s side has barely played. 2-0 and 6-0 losses to Gabon in 2002 and 3-0 and 6-0 losses to Togo in 2006 appear to be their only games to date, though they were drawn to play DRC in the 2020 qualifiers before they were cancelled. Highly inactive at a youth level, São Tomé fielded a team in the 2019 U23 qualifying (two losses as above), withdrew from the 2003 U20, were disqualified from the 2019 U17 (overage players) and lost both matches in 2001 U17 qualifying. Their women’s youth sides managed a walkover loss in 2010 U20 qualifying and a 10-1 aggregate loss to Mali in the 2002 U19 competition and that’s all for them.

They’ve never played either futsal or beach soccer, as you might expect, and are not expected to soon.

They’re already out of 2022 World Cup qualification, having lost home and away to Guinea-Bissau. All in all, nothing unexpected from the tiny nation.

San Marino 1992-93 Home, matchworn unknown v Turkey, 1994 WCQ
San Marino 1994-97 Home, matchworn unnown v Greece, 1996 ECQ
San Marino 1994-97 Away, matchworn unnown v Greece, 1996 ECQ
San Marino 1998-2002 Home, matchworn unknown v England U18, 2000 U18 ECQ
San Marino 2004-07 GK, matchworn Federico Gasperoni v Lithuania, 2006 WCQ
San Marino 2004-07 Away
San Marino 2012-14 Home, matchworn Vitaioli v Albania, 2014 Friendly

Oh Admiral, please come back. Across the early 90’s Admiral provided bespoke kits for a fair few nations, San Marino being one of them. The Admiral logo is tiled across the entire shirt, in the fabric, and also displayed on the front. It is all in blue and white, the Sammarinese colours and the deep blue daggers dominate the shirt on the front, back and sleeves. Not a single part is plain, with plenty of colour and even some white striping on the collar and dual colour cuffs. The only downside to this incredible shirt is that the collar isn’t buttoned and just hangs loose.

This is the earlier design from Admiral used across 1992 with minor variations seeing use from 1993 across the remainder of the 1994 World Cup qualifiers. San Marino’s first World Cup qualifying campaign started ignominiously with a 10-0 loss to Norway but they subsequently improved. They were never expected to do well in a group with Norway, Netherlands, England, Poland and Turkey but they managed to score two goals and a single point. The 0-0 draw against Turkey was the highlight, but fame will always be attributed to Davide Gualtieri’s goal against England, which stood as the fastest UEFA World Cup qualifying goal for over 20 years, as well as confirming that England would not attend the World Cup. Additionally they managed a goal against Turkey in a 4-1 loss, a 2-0 home loss to Norway (a big improvement) and only a 1-0 loss away in Poland.

Virma certainly had a lot to live up to, following on straight from Admiral. For a first shirt, they certainly delivered! Patterned material, Virma logos across the collar and sleeve cuffs to liven them up, and the national crest in a lighter blue across the font. I personally prefer the Admiral shirt, but these are still spectacular, with the away keeping the blue collar, which stands out nicely and the crest also standing out more. No cuffs on the short sleeve shirts does lead to a slight loss in detail, but it hardly ruins these beauties.

Used across 1996 Euros qualifiers and 1998 World Cup qualifiers, these were a long time mainstay of the team. Even so, the senior team only used the away once! The Euros saw them pitted against Scotland, Russia, Greece, Finland and the Faroe Islands. Here they managed a home goal in a 3-1 loss to the Faroes and an away goal in a 4-1 loss to Finland. With 4 matches only being 2 goal losses, it also marked a reasonable defensive performance by their standards, though they scored no points. World Cup qualification did not go so well. With a  3-0 home loss to Belgium being their narrowest defeat, San Marino played all 8 matches without scoring and lost heavily to the Netherlands, Belgium, Turkey and Wales. One to forget.

If shirt design equated to results then 90’s San Marino would have been nigh on unbeatable. Just look at this! Patterned fabric, the FA logo splayed across the front, deep blue and white detailing across the sleeves and an incredibly detailed collar. If that wasn’t even enough, the typeface for the numbers is excellent too. Nowhere on the shirt is boring to look at and the use of the national colours is superb and consistent without being too much. This shirt really has it all, it has to be one of the greatest of all time.

Seen across both Euro 2000 and 2002 World Cup qualifiers, it had 4 years to spread its beauty across Europe. Unfortunately, it did not bring sporting success with it. Euro 2000 qualifiers had them against Spain, Israel, Austria and Cyprus. All of their away games were rough, but they managed a home goal against Austria in a 4-1 loss and held Cyprus to a single goal, but they finished well distant from their compatriots with 0 points. Things picked up in 2002 qualifiers, where they conceded 30% fewer goals in a group with Croatia, Belgium, Scotland and Latvia. At home they scored against Belgium (4-1 loss), held Scotland to only a 2-0 win and Latvia to a single goal. Away from home they drew 1-1 with Latvia (their first point for 8 years) and scored in a brutal 10-1 loss to Belgium.

Moving on we have this goalkeeper shirt, special for its rarity rather than its beauty. But don’t talk it down, white stitching helps the shirt stand out, rather than just being black. Also, the Sammarinese cyan is spread across side panels and the shoulders. Nicely incorporated despite it being the colour of the home shirt. Virma also get their name and logo on the front, with a logo on the sleeve too. No, it isn’t the greatest shirt they’ve ever had, but it is surprisingly nice for a basic shirt. The away shirt doesn’t excite too much either, with Virma logos on the sleeves and cyan shoulder panelling. Otherwise there’s a little trim on the sleeves and a black and white stripe on the collar. The final detail is subtle, but nice, with the material patterned differently across it, though this is hard to notice except in close-ups.

2006 World Cup qualifying brought a tough group against Serbia and Montenegro, Spain, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Belgium and Lithuania. Two 3-0 losses were reasonable but the highlights came at home with a 3-1 loss to Bosnia and Herzegovina, a 2-1 loss to Belgium and only 1-0 to Lithuania. The rest, doesn’t really bear mentioning though, with 40 goals conceded in 10 games. They finished without a point, 1-0 points behind 5^th placed Lithuania. They were also used for the start of Euro 2008 qualifiers

Last, and very much least, is this Adidas template. Deep blue doesn’t match the national colour, there’s minimal white trim and panelling to make it interesting and, all in all, it doesn’t look like a San Marino shirt. No detail to it, the great FA logo doesn’t even match up perfectly to the Adidas one and it ends up as a bitter disappointment of a shirt.

2014 World Cup qualifiers were a particularly brutal time for San Marino. Their only goal came in a 5-1 home loss to Poland and a 2-0 loss to Moldova at home was the narrowest loss for them. 11 points behind 5^th placed Moldova, they conceded 54 goals in 10 games against the likes of England, Ukraine, Montenegro, Poland and Moldova for arguably their worst qualification campaign in history.

As everyone knows, these results are not uncommon for San Marino. Infamous as the weakest side in UEFA, they’ve won only a single friendly game in their history. The strength of UEFA highlights their flaws, though they’ve been steadily improving statistically as time goes on. Always at the bottom of their Euros and World Cup qualifying groups, they’re also yet to score in the Nations League, though they managed consecutive 0-0 draws in the 2020-21 edition for the first time ever. With players in the lower Italian leagues and the new Nations League providing them closer competition, expect continued, slow development.

Women’s football is yet to take off in San Marino with them remaining as the sole UEFA member to have never participated in women’s national football at any level. Their women’s club side is mainly Italian, though Sammarinese players does give hope that one day a national side will rise. Men’s youth football has produced some interesting results, though there was a gap in their competing across the 1990’s/early 2000’s for different youth levels. The U21s have gained forfeit victories over Sweden and Armenia as well as a 1-0 win over Wales. Draws against Estonia, Finland and Greece bring in their remaining points. The U19s only have 1-1 draws against Albania and Lithuania to their name while the U17s have draws against Armenia (1-1), Andorra (1-1) and the Faroe Islands (3-3) along with a stunning 2-1 win over Andorra in Andorra itself (they only lost 2-0 to Portugal too!).

While beach soccer is yet to come to the Sammarinese, they did make their way into the world of competitive futsal from 2010, for 2012 qualifiers onwards. Results tended to be narrower than the football sides from the off, though they still lost all their games. Euro 2022 qualifiers brought about a spectacular reversal when they drew 1-1 with Bulgaria before shutting out Andorra 2-0 to finish 2^nd in their preliminary qualifying group. Drawn in a play-off against Denmark, they lost 2-1 at home and then 2-0 away to miss out on the main qualifying stage. Definitely an area to keep an eye on.

Drawn in a group with England, Hungary, Albania, Poland and Andorra, San Marino have had another campaign without a single point. While new defensive resilience has been found, they fell well short against Andorra and almost look to have regressed. Worry signs in the small republic. A home goal against Poland proved to be small consolation.

Samoa 2017-19 Home

Rwanda 2011-13 Home, matchworn/prepared
Rwanda 2015-16 Home

First up, a pretty reasonable Adidas template. The panels coming in off the shoulders at the collar are a little strange, but they do at least get the Adidas logo out of the way of the stripes. The narrowing of the stripes at the bottom with the other panels of the shirt works nicely to taper things off and the fragmented outer edge of the stripes themselves helps prevent them from being too jarring. Works pretty well. However, there is nothing on the back of the shirt and the colour scheme does restrict the numbers on the front somewhat.

Used across 2014 World Cup qualifiers, Rwanda managed to beat Eritrea 4-2 on aggregate in the preliminary round but could not continue such success in the main qualification stage. In a group with Algeria, Mali and Benin, they managed a 1-1 home draw with Benin, but lost the other two matches by a single goal. Away was less successful in terms of goal difference, but they did manage another 1-1 draw, this time against Mali.

Next up we have an AMS shirt. Fully sublimated is it cheaply made, but is a nice design. A giant Sun shape across the front including even the sleeves is very nice, though the lack of accenting anywhere but the colour is disappointing. The Amavubi nickname for the team is plastered across the lower rear but otherwise there’s not much to it. A nice design, ruined by the manufacturer being founded and run by the most hated person inside the community and a cheap look and feel.

The design was used for the 2018 World Cup qualifiers where they lost home and away to Libya in their only games to drop out early. It also featured in 2017 AFCON qualifiers where they finished 3^rd on head-to-head but 7 points off qualification. They thrashed Mauritius at home, beat Mozambique away and drew 1-1 in Ghana. But home losses to Mozambique and Ghana along with an away loss to Mauritius left them on only 7 points.

Rwanda have never been a highly ranked nation in FIFA and that’s showed, with these results proving typical. They’ve often been eliminated in the early double headers in World Cup qualifying, with 3 wins from 10 being their best campaign. Their story is similar in AFCON qualifiers, which is what made their 2004 qualification such a surprise. At the 2004 tournament, their only appearance to date, they lost 2-1 to hosts Tunisia but managed a late draw against Guinea and a win over DR Congo to narrowly miss the knockouts. They’ve also been to 4 CHANs, once as hosts, making the quarter-finals twice. However, their highlights have come in the CECAFA Cup. Only the 1 title (embarrassingly by their B side rather than the A side) and 8 more top 3 finishes show that there is some talent and that they can compete well with their neighbours.

The Rwandan women’s side has only briefly played. They attempted to qualify for the 2014 AFCON, beating Kenya on away goals before being annihilated by regional powerhouse Nigeria 12-1 over two legs. A win against Tanzania and a draw against Uganda are their only CECAFA wins too. Their men’s youth sides have had a little success, with an appearance at the U20 and U17 AFCONs, even finishing 2^nd in the 2011 U17 edition, defeating Burkina Faso, Egypt and the Ivory Coast despite qualifying as hosts! Women’s youth football appears to solely consist of an attempt at the 2010 U20 AFCON where they lost both preliminary round legs to Uganda.

Rwanda have never fielded a futsal or beach soccer side in competitive play.

As with their previous attempts, little was expected of Rwanda for 2022 qualification, though a 10-0 aggregate thrashing of the Seychelles was the standout result of the entire preliminary round. Drawn with Mali, Uganda and Kenya, they’d have wanted to compete for 3^rd, but managed only a home draw against Kenya for a solitary point, losing every away match by a single goal. Better luck next time.

Russia 2014-16 Home

Romania 2010-11 Away

Republic of Ireland 2003-04 Home