DONE DEAL: Leeds United Has Signed Sheffield Wednesday Star………….read more.
With the football season fast approaching, fans of all ages eagerly anticipate their club’s new kit. However, Leeds United supporters are dismayed to see their iconic white home shirt marred by their most despised color: red.
This month, fans were shocked to find that the colors of their historic rivals, Manchester United, have made their way onto the kit through the new sponsor, Red Bull. The energy drink’s logo, featuring two red bulls locking horns in front of a yellow background, now adorns the 2024-25 home kit designed by Adidas.
Adding to the frustration, red is also the color of the Lancaster rose, while Yorkshire’s rose is white. Leeds fans’ aversion to red is so strong that a former sponsor, 23red, created a blue logo specifically for the team’s shirt. The McDonald’s next to Elland Road is believed to be the only one without any red in its branding.
Daniel Chapman, author of the Sunday Times bestseller “100 Years of Leeds United” and writer of the Leedsista newsletter, suggests that the disdain for red stems from a feeling of losing control over the beloved club. He explained, “It’s perhaps not that colors matter more than they used to, but that fewer things in football matter as much. Fans cherish local players, like Archie Gray at Leeds, because such connections have become rare, amplifying their importance amid fears for the future of football.”
Simon Rix, bassist of the Kaiser Chiefs and co-host of the BBC Leeds United podcast “Don’t Go to Bed Just Yet,” notes that the anti-red sentiment seems to be a “relatively recent addition” to the culture of Leeds United fans. He recalled, “There was a time when a lovely red Porsche jumper was one of my prized possessions, but now I wouldn’t wear that out of the house, drive a red car, or play a red bass, though I do have some faded to pink ones.”
Leeds fans are not alone in their aversion to certain colors. Last year, Southampton FC fans used an ancient court process to attempt to change the Itchen Bridge lights from the colors of their fierce rivals, Portsmouth FC. In 2015, a proposed red and white color scheme for Portsmouth’s Spinnaker Tower, mirroring Southampton’s colors, was scrapped after 100 liters of unwanted red paint sparked an angry reaction.
