Green Germany Away Strip

Imhof Tank

Have you ever wondered why Germany's second strip is green shirts, white shorts and green socks, when none of these colours feature in their flag?

My mate insists that this goes back to Ireland being the first, or one of the first teams to play West Germany after WW2 - and the FAI presenting a set of Ireland home kits to the Germans to mark the occassion (or possibly players swopping shirts at the end of the game).

The suggetsion is that the Germans were so impressed at the Irish gesture in the immediate aftermath of the war that they decided to retain the green shirts as their second strip.

There may of course also have been some anti British connotation to all this freindliness by the Irish with the Jerries.

Can anyone confirm whether this true, because I'd love it to be

Pal

urban myth

cityman

That is true about why the Germans used to wear green shirts(black/red now). Ireland were the only country interested in playing them after the war.(you know thw Irish we'll play anyone,anywhere!!)
I heard this story years ago when I asked about it.

whiskeyman

Imhof Tank wrote: »

Have you ever wondered why Germany's second strip is green shirts, white shorts and green socks, when none of these colours feature in their flag?

Not really.
Lots of international soccer teams even have first kits that main colours aren't on their nations flag (Italy, Japan, Australia and Norn Iron being a few to mention). More than likely it's off a national crest or some other link.
EDIT - just got this from WIKI

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).

The DFB (Germany FA) colours are indeed green:


MYTHBUSTED!!

Pal

cityman wrote: »

That is true about why the Germans used to wear green shirts(black/red now). Ireland were the only country interested in playing them after the war.(you know thw Irish we'll play anyone,anywhere!!)
I heard this story years ago when I asked about it.

Sorry but its simply not true.
Lots of people have heard the green shirt story and strangely the myth endures.

Our politicians were indeed somewhat partial towards Germany at the time.
DeValera infamously sent condolences on the death of Hitler.
Maybe that contributes towards the fallacy.

Fact is, Germany's first opponent after The War was Switzerland, not Ireland.

LeeroyJones

Pal wrote: »

Fact is, Germany's first opponent after The War was Switzerland, not Ireland.

Ireland were the first team to offer them a match - well thats how i always heard it

Guy:Incognito

They played the Swiss twice, Austria and Turkey before they played us ( or is that before we played you, seeing as i'm invoking my German passport for the Euro's )

Dodge

*Sigh*

The reason for the green jersey is the same reason why German police car's are green

Zaph

Dodge wrote: »

*Sigh*

The reason for the green jersey is the same reason why German police car's are green

And why are German police cars green?

whiskeyman

zaph wrote: »

And why are German police cars green?

The first person to get arrested was Irish...

wiki to the rescue!

Before the police reform in the mid-1970s, Germany had many city police forces and each had its own police car livery. Dark blue, dark green and white were popular colours. However, the dark colours were perceived as a disadvantage as many accidents occurred at night during high speed chases. Therefore the conference of interior ministers decided on standardising police car liveries so that the cars appeared non-threatening and could be easily visible at night. And so bright green has been the colour associated with the police in Germany since the 1970s. Vehicles were generally painted white with bright green stripes.