Blue vs Blue: Should Chelsea & Manchester City Not Wear Home Kits Against Each Other?

On Saturday, Manchester City beat Chelsea in what has been a major victory for City towards winning the league. In that match, both teams were wearing their blue home kits - but this has not always been the case.

The light vs dark rule allows the teams to wear their home kits

Sky blue vs royal blue is allowed both by the FA, Premier League, and UEFA. The rule that is applied here is the "light vs dark" rule. We doubt that FIFA would allow sky blue vs blue.

1960 - home kit (Chelsea) vs away kit (Man City)

Chelsea vs Man City Kit History

Before the 1990s, when Chelsea faced Manchester City, at least one of both teams did not wear their home kit. Instead, they chose to play with either both away kits or only one team wore their home kit. We have found no picture from the 1950s, 1960s 1970s, and 1980s in which both teams wore their home kit - at least one team wore an alternative kit.

Both teams started to wear home kits in 1991

This changed in the mid-1990s. In the 1991-92 season, both teams wore their home kits against each other - sky blue vs royal blue. In the following years, Chelsea and Manchester continued to wear their home kits against each other.

However, around 2000, the kit choices changed again. From 2000 until mid-2014, either Chelsea or Manchester City wore their away kit in (all?) duels.

Then, from the 2014-15 season, things suddenly changed - from eight years ago, both teams always wore their home kits. This hasn't changed since then.

High-definition TVs made it possible to distinguish both teams well

It can be only rumored what the reason was to allow both teams again to wear their home kits, but one is surely the push through of HD TVs.

Sky blue vs blue is surely not optimal to distinguish both teams, but there have been no major concerns of the players/clubs nor the fans in the past few years.

Chelsea vs Manchester City - Kit Duel History

  • Until 1991: mostly Home vs alternative or alternative vs alternative
  • 1991 until 2000: Home vs home
  • 2000 until 2014: Home vs alternative
  • 2014 until today: Home vs Home

For most colorblind people, Chelsea and Manchester City wearing their home kits is no problem - the light / dark rule also applies here.

Most Colorblind people should have no problems

Do you like that Chelsea and Manchester City both wear their home kits against each other? Comment below.