German's Away strip

poker_face

Could someone please confirm if the following is true. I heard many moons ago that the reason germany's away strip is green is a mark of respect to the irish football team. Apparently Ireland were the first nation that agreed play germany in a friendly game after World War II.

GBX

Thats correct. Very true .. nice gesture on both nations behalf.

biko

Not according to Guardian

Vorsprung

biko wrote:

Not according to Guardian

or Wikipedia

The national team's home dress has always been a white jersey and black shorts, while the away jersey colour has changed several times. Historically, green shirt with white shorts is the most often used alternative colour combination, derived from the DFB colours (and the ones of a playing field). Other colours such as grey and black have also been used. The last change, from black to red, came in November 2004 on the request of Klinsmann, citing that teams in red are statistically more successful, and perceived as more intimidating. He hoped to use the red away shirt as first choice for the 2006 World Cup despite less than impressive results when playing in these colours (for example, the loss in Italy), but the FIFA decided that Germany had to play in its traditional colors.

Dave!

Does snopes have a page on it by any chance?

Pigman II

Not according to history either ....
(post war)

West Germany v
199 22/11/1950 Stuttgart Switzerland 1-0
200 15/ 4/1951 Zürich, Sui Switzerland 3-2
201 17/ 6/1951 Berlin Turkey 1-2
202 23/ 9/1951 Wien, Aut Austria 2-0
203 17/10/1951 Dublin, Irl Ireland 2-3

GBX

Im overruled .. I guess im gullible! heard it recently myself .. forget the source.

iFight

I thought they put a green stripe or mark on it, not a big one or anything

Zebra3

poker_face wrote:

Could someone please confirm if the following is true. I heard many moons ago that the reason germany's away strip is green is a mark of respect to the irish football team. Apparently Ireland were the first nation that agreed play germany in a friendly game after World War II.

Like Irish fans being the best in the world, it's just another myth.

WhiteWashMan

i thought it was because they played northern ireland at some stage, and didnt have an away strip, and borrowed their green strip, so they decided to wear green after that.

no idea if its true or not, but it wasnt the irish strip.

Benedict XVI

Zebra3 wrote:

Like Irish fans being the best in the world, it's just another myth.

That and Panathanikos being founded by Irish, the green and the 'shamrock' type emblem are just a coincidence

Lex Luthor

poker_face wrote:

Could someone please confirm if the following is true. I heard many moons ago that the reason germany's away strip is green is a mark of respect to the irish football team. Apparently Ireland were the first nation that agreed play germany in a friendly game after World War II.

Well thats what I heard aswell a good few years ago

evad_lhorg

i had also heard this. ah well

Pacifico

I contacted the Goethe Institute, London about the German strip before the world cup!

And to quote Mr.Liebler:

....that the colour green was due to the colour green in the official DFB logo....

And he added

Now the new colour is red, I hope, it brings them luck

Big Ears

Lex Luthor wrote:

Well thats what I heard aswell a good few years ago

Ya it's a common myth .

iregk

Benedict XVI wrote:

That and Panathanikos being founded by Irish, the green and the 'shamrock' type emblem are just a coincidence

Actually its not. Apparently Panathanikos (and a greek olympiakos fan explained this to me last summer) were founded by the monks of the local area. Many of these were Irish monks and as such placed a shamrock on the crest and played in green. For a while they were known as the Greek Irish.

Now a days with Pana the support base has teamed up with the Rovers Ultras and the two regularly travel to support each other. Beautiful really...

As for Germany I heard that too about the Irish match and up to now also believed it.

Benedict XVI

iregk wrote:

Actually its not. Apparently Panathanikos (and a greek olympiakos fan explained this to me last summer) were founded by the monks of the local area. Many of these were Irish monks and as such placed a shamrock on the crest and played in green. For a while they were known as the Greek Irish.

Now a days with Pana the support base has teamed up with the Rovers Ultras and the two regularly travel to support each other. Beautiful really...

As for Germany I heard that too about the Irish match and up to now also believed it.

Well actually it is.
Once again the Guardian is has the answer
http://football.guardian.co.uk/theknowledge/story/0,13854,1535863,00.html

And the offical Panathnikos website
http://www.pao.gr/category.php?category_id=51

Why would you believe anything than an Olympiakos fan says about their biggest rivals ?
That is like believeing everthing a Celtic fan says about Rangers

Oriel

Monks?! Starting a football team? Jesus how gulliable are you really?

"Right lads, what link can we get between Ireland and Greece so? Guinness? Shamrocks? Green? Catholicism?
Catholicism! Catholicism sounds good, go with that..."

iregk

Benedict XVI wrote:

Well actually it is.

Why would you believe anything than an Olympiakos fan says about their biggest rivals ?
That is like believeing everthing a Celtic fan says about Rangers

Well I stand corrected, or sit as it woudl have it!

Also I didn't even know Olympiakos were their biggest rivals! I'm not too up on greek football in fairness and infairness sin, considering monks used to own Shamrock Rovers ground it wouldn't seem too far fetched.