Only Black Boots Allowed? Manchester City Players Wear Colored Boots in UEFA Youth League
Update: We decided to update this article as we received several messages by our followers who wondered why Man City's players wear wearing colored boots in today's UEFA Youth League match against Barcelona and not blackout cleats. The reason is simple. Manchester City's boot rule only affects U18s players, in opposite to Man Utd's boot rule which affects all youth players.
Manchester City's Boot Rule Only Affects U18s Players
Man Utd's players were forced to wear blackout cleats when they played in UEFA's youth league.
Manchester City has disallowed all of their U18s players to wear colored boots as part of a system aimed at making Pep Guardiola spoilt for choice with young talent at Manchester City.
Interestingly, Man City is not the first club to introduce a black boots rule, but follows up city rivals Man Utd who banned players from its academy teams in to wear colored boots in 2010, reacting to the flashy releases from Adidas, Nike and pretty much all other brands.
Manchester City's New Boot Rule Part of Youth Strategy
The policy of only allowing black boots is part of the Blues' mantra of ensuring that their players are level-headed as well as talented and technically excellent, which forms a key element in a youth strategy. The head of academy coaching Jason Wilcox feels will end up leaving first team manager Pep Guardiola 'spoilt for choice' in terms of young stars.
We want people to represent Manchester City the right way
Wilcox said in an interview with The Mirror about the new rules at Man City two days ago: "There is nothing worse for me than to see a high-profile footballer who has no manners or respect for other people. Yes, you do have to be single-minded, but you can still be respectful to others. It doesn’t matter whether a boy is speaking to one of the cleaning ladies or the CEO, we demand that they show respect. We want people to represent Manchester City the right way – not just in a sky-blue shirt, but when they are away from the club as well."
Nike's Man City 16-17 home kit was presented by youth players - They were allowed to wear colored boots until October
Should even more clubs have a rule like this? Do you know more teams that have a boot rule (apart from Tijuana)? Let us know in the comments below.
