Borussia Dortmund beat Sporting 1-0 in match day two of the Champions League last night. But one small detail was apparent throughout the match, and that was the visibility of the club crest on their shirt, something which had previously been missing.
There was a lot of controversy when PUMA unveiled their radical third shirt template for the majority of their premium European teams this season, with fans outraged at the defiance of convention. But one shirt was missing from the lineup: that or Borussia Dortmund. Rumours immediately started to circulate that the Bundesliga side’s shirt had been held back due to fan outrage at early leaks of the design. The BVB third shirt was not released until almost a month after the other teams.
It appeared that the main cause of the fans’ disapproval centred around the way the club’s name appeared, and so, when the shirt was finally unveiled, it featured the club’s “BVB 09” monicker across the chest as opposed to the “Borussia Dortmund” wording that had originally been leaked.
Fans were still not completely happy with the design upon its release, however, angered by the fact that the club crest appeared only in barely-visible sublimated form, repeated throughout the shirt, as with the other PUMA third shirts. In an attempt to appease but to also adhere to UEFA regulations ahead of Champions League match day one against Besiktas, the outline of the crest was added on the left of the chest. This was still barely visible on the pitch. A third alteration was needed.
For the Champions League match against Sporting, Dortmund contacted UEFA and tried to get approval for a colour-contrasting version of the logo. The European Football Association complied with this request on Friday afternoon, and Dortmund played in a third version of their shirt, the black outline of the club crest clear for all to see.
Is this the end of the alterations on this shirt? You'd imagine so, but you'd also imagine PUMA won't be in a rush to experiment with BVB shirts again in the future.
As mentioned, Dortmund were just one of several teams to get the template treatment from PUMA, with the likes of Manchester City, AC Milan, Valencia, Marseille and several others all getting the same. But BVB fans were the only set to shout loud enough about their discontent and get something done about it. Never underestimate the power the fans.
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