Author Alex Ireland reflects on the history of the football shirt...

THE humble football shirt has had a dramatic evolution over a 150-year period, from modest beginnings to a product at the centre of a billion-dollar industry.
It has become a sacred relic of the game and a key part of footballing vocabulary. Underperforming players are told that they are ‘not fit to wear the shirt’, whilst players who do not appear to be able to handle the pressure at a high-profile club are similarly described as ‘struggling with the weight of the shirt’.
It is often a central piece of goal celebrations...