England Football Online
Contact Us Page Last Updated 1 August 2023
Goalkeepers' Uniforms:

1997 Dark Blue
1998 Green

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England's Uniforms

England's Tournament Uniform
World Cup
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1997 Home Uniform
1998 WC Away Uniform
1999 Home Uniform
 
 

P 3 W 1 D 1 L 1 F 5:A 4
50% successful

Description  

White short-sleeved shirt, with shadow pin-stripes. Navy-blue winged collar. Three navy-blue lions on a white button fastener, on a thick red rectangular insert beneath the neck, adjoining an overlapping thick navy-blue rectangular insert, with an English flag on a small tag. Navy-blue rectangular panel, edged with a red stripe down each side, on lower outer sleeves. An inner red shard and an outer navy-blue shard beginning at armpit and running down each side of chest, separated by a thin white stripe. Embroidered emblem, with light-blue lions, in centre of chest, with navy-blue registered trademark underneath left-hand side of emblem, 'ENGLAND' in capitalised navy-blue lettering below it and 'UMBRO' in large capitalised navy-blue lettering above it. Red number, with navy-blue border, on reverse and in the centre of the chest, beneath the emblem, in same font as previous England shirts. 'FIFA WORLD CUP' and then 'FRANCE 1998' centralised in capitalised navy-blue lettering directly above the number on the chest. Player's surname in an arc in capitalised red lettering, with a navy-blue border, above number on reverse (pink characters were unused).

Long navy-blue shorts, with navy-blue drawstring. An inner red shard and an outer white shard running down lower front side of each seam, separated by a thin navy-blue stripe. 'UMBRO' in large capitalised white lettering on left thigh. Embroidered emblem on right thigh, with white registered trademark underneath left-hand side of emblem and 'ENGLAND' in capitalised white lettering below it. White number, with red border in the same font as on the shirt, above the emblem on right thigh.

White socks, with navy-blue turnover, two red hoops across each. Navy-blue emblem on front of each sock, with 'ENGLAND' in capitalised navy-blue lettering below it and 'UMBRO' in large capitalised navy-blue lettering beneath.

Variations
  • The long-sleeved version of the shirt was worn by David Batty and Paul Ince in all three games, and by David Beckham against Romania and Argentina. The cuffs were navy blue, with a white stripe near the edge and there were no panels on the sleeves.
  • The shirts worn by Les Ferdinand and Rio Ferdinand also included their first initial i.e. L. FERDINAND and R. FERDINAND, though both players stayed on the bench for the entire tournament.
Most Appearances

3 - Tony Adams, Darren Anderton, David Batty (1 sub), Sol Campbell, Paul Ince, Graeme Le Saux, Michael Owen (2 sub), Paul Scholes, Alan Shearer

  • Of the seven players who started all three games in which the white shirt was worn, only Adams, Campbell and Shearer stayed on the pitch for the full five hours, with Shearer also taking part in the penalty shootout against Argentina.

  • 14 members of England's World Cup squad appeared in this shirt.

  • None of them were making their international debuts, and no players won their last cap during this tournament.

Top Scorers

2 - Michael Owen, Alan Shearer (1 Pen.)

1 - Paul Scholes

  • Both Owen and Shearer also netted in the penalty shootout against Argentina.

  • Owen became his country's youngest ever World Cup scorer when he came on as a substitute to equalise against Romania, but it was his goal against Argentina that alerted the world to the 18-year-old's lightning pace and deadly finishing.

  • Shearer had been the top scorer at the 1996 European Championship and he was to net twice more in the 2000 tournament.

Captain

3 - Alan Shearer

  • Shearer skippered a squad without a single previous World Cup appearance to their names, though eight of them had played in the 1996 European Championship.

 

England wore a variation of their home kit introduced a year earlier, in three of their four matches at the World Cup 1998 final tournament in France.

Hopes were high going into the tournament, following the magnificent performance in the final qualifier in Rome, and the Football Association had signed an extension to their kit contract with Umbro for a further five years, bringing in £50 million, a staggering amount compared to the £15,000 for the five-year contract signed with Admiral in 1974.

In the last of those three matches, the round of 16 clash with Argentina, they wore all white, substituting the white shorts from the away kit for the navy-blue shorts of the home. This looked fine, although a close inspection would reveal that the number font on the shorts was different to that of the shirts, due to it being from the red kit.

It was a tournament that began with high hopes, but ended with the almost inevitable penalty-shootout heartache. Romania were the first to expose England's weaknesses, which left them needing to beat Argentina for a place in the quarter-finals. A classic encounter followed, Michael Owen scored a superb goal, David Beckham was given his marching orders for a petulant kick and England ended up on the back foot, before it all ended in tears once again.


Matches in which England wore the 1998 World Cup Home White Uniform
Season 1997-98

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Glenn Hoddle

World Cup Finals in France
747  15 June 1998 - England 2 Tunisia 0 [1-0]
Le Stade Vélodrome, Saint-Giniez, Marseille
(54,587)
Shearer, Scholes NW
748  22 June 1998 - Romania 2 England 1 [0-0]
Stade Municipal, Iles du Ramier, Toulouse (37,500)
Moldovan, Petrescu 
Owen
NL
750  30 June 1998 - Argentina 2 England 2 [2-2]ᴭᵀ 4-3 on penalty-kicks
Stade Geoffroy-Guichard, Rue Paul et Pierre Guichard, Saint-Étienne
 (35,500)
Batistuta (pen), Zanetti
Shearer (pen), Owen
ND
England wore all white, the white home shirt and socks with the 1997 white away shorts, against Argentina.
Worn by 14 Players
Tony Adams Darren Anderton David Batty David Beckham
Sol Campbell Paul Ince Graeme Le Saux Paul Merson
Gary Neville Michael Owen Paul Scholes Alan Shearer
Teddy Sheringham Gareth Southgate  

It was also worn on the bench by unused substitutes, Les Ferdinand, Rio Ferdinand, Martin Keown, Rob Lee and Steve McManaman.

England's Record wearing the 1998 World Cup Home Shirt
Type P W D L F A GD FTS CS FAv AAv Pts % W/L
Neutral 3 1 1 1 5 4 +1 0 1 1.667 1.333 50.0 =0
Total 3 1 1 1 5 4 +1 0 1 1.667 1.333 50.0 =0

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CG/GI/JB/PY