Genevan Handyman Creates Tearable Football Jerseys Concept To Tackle Shirt-Pulling In Football

Edouard Stauffer, a Swiss handyman, is a strong advocate of fair play in football. He wants to reduce shirt-pulling in matches by introducing tearable jerseys.

What is Edouard Stauffer's idea?

Edouard Stauffer's, a 74-year-old handyman, idea is rather simple. Additional seams are strategically added on the football shirt, which will relax upon being pulled, effectively ripping off the shirt. The player, instead of being pulled back, can continue his run.

“Shirt-pulling makes me mad,” says Stauffer. "By dragging a player behind, you often prevent a scoring opportunity."

The final between Italy and England at the recent EURO 2020 was a prime example that Stauffer thinks his shirt could have made a difference.

"With my jerseys, Saka would have gone alone in goal and might have scored, and England might be European champions."

The Genevan firmly believes in the idea, which he has been working on for the past 12 years. He patented his innovation in 2017 for Europe, under patent number 3,562,343, under the name 'Advantage'.

Stauffer's sketch of his concept.

Stauffer also presented his work to FIFA, but the organisation dismissed him. Zvonimir Boban, the Deputy Secretary General at the time, stated that fouls and bad plays were part of football and that FIFA were not interested.

A render of what Stauffer's idea may look like in reality.

However, formal assistant coach of the Switzerland national team Michel Pont supports Stauffer's idea but also admits that it's "very difficult to put into practice".

If the image of an easily torn football shirt seem familiar to you, that's because this happened to Puma shirts back in EURO 2016, when Granit Xhaka's shirt was pulled by Pogba. This raised a lot of concern regarding the quality of Puma shirts back then.

What do you think of Edouard Stauffer's tearable football jerseys? Comment below.