It is Cancer Research UK and the Bobby Moore Fund’s Football Shirt Friday on April 26th 2024. Football fans across the UK are encouraged to wear their favourite football shirts, take a picture, share it on social media and donate to tackle bowel cancer.
My favourite Brighton football shirt? Easy. The AC Milan inspired away number the Albion wore between 1999 and 2002. Why? Because it made supporting Brighton seem cool for the first time in years.
Firstly, it was made by Errea. Everyone knows they were the best kit manufacturer the Albion have ever had. Custom-made designs rather than the same regurgitated template crap Nike turn out every year.
Italian’s know a thing or two about fashion as well. Those 1999-00 Errea kits – and I include the blue and white home version as well – were the most stylish Brighton had worn in a long time.
Not that this was particularly difficult. The shirts designed by SuperLeague between 1997 and 1999 were befitting of a club in the bottom eight of the Football League.
Admiral did give us the wonderful Inter Milan away kit. But they also thought putting a chessboard on the shoulder of a yellow away shirt was a good idea.
As for Ribero. Well. Blue and white striped shorts made the Albion look like a set of deckchairs. The Chewitt Wrapper away kit needs no introduction.
It is now considered a classic thanks to garish designs from the early 1990s being back in vogue. You can only afford one on the rare occasions they pop up on eBay if you are willing to go to Turkey first and sell a kidney.
But until recently, it was a staple part of any worst football kit ever list. At the time, it was thought of as an abomination.
Before Errea, you therefore have to go back to the mid-1980s when Adidas were making Brighton kits for the last time they were stylish. Over a decade of dowdiness.
The AC Milan shirt was the first away kit to be sponsored by Skint. This of course helped in making it extra cool.
Having the record label of one of the world’s leading DJs emblazoned on the front beat an Italian restaurant, a paint company, a bank which no longer existed and NOBO.
What happens on the pitch does not necessarily lend itself to how popular a football shirt is. The AC Milan kit was certainly helped though by being used through a period of sustained success after years of abject failure.
Brighton had spent over a decade looking unfashionable. In that time, they had also gone from second tier to only goal difference keeping them in the Football League.
The Albion had almost gone out of business thanks to Bill Archer, Greg Stanley and David Bellotti. They had been made homeless and had to undertake a 150-mile round trip to Gillingham for home matches.
What the cool AC Milan design did was reflect the birth of a new Albion; of a club returning to its home city after a two-year exile and looking to rise out of the doldrums.
There was a real feelgood factor around Brighton & Hove when the Seagulls settled in at Withdean Stadium. The 1999-00 campaign in which the AC Milan kit was first used ended in mid table mediocrity.
But you could still see the first shoots of what would grow into back-to-back Division Three and Division Two title winning teams.
This was the away shirt of Paul Watson. Danny Cullip. Nathan Jones. Gary Hart. Charlie Oatway. Paul Rogers. Richard Carpenter. Paul Brooker. Lee Steele. And of course, a certain Bobby Zamora.
It was away against Chester City in February 2000 when Brighton fans first realised what a special player they had on their hands in Zamora.
In the AC Milan shirt, Zamora hit a hat-trick in a 7-1 Albion victory at the Deva Stadium. It was only his third game for the Albion and sparked a 14-game unbeaten run to end the campaign.
That form continued into 2000-01. Brighton won Division Three by 10 points from Cardiff City. In 2001-02, the Division Two championship was claimed by six points from Reading.
Zamora scored over 30 goals in both those seasons, including his iconic 30-yard chip away at Bury in December 2001 wearing the red and black shirt.
The AC Milan kit was also used when Zamora netted the only goal against Peterborough United in April 2002. A 1-0 win coupled with Reading drawing 2-2 at Tranmere Rovers the next day confirmed Brighton’s promotion back to second tier after a 10-year absence.
Two divisional titles. A Withdean homecoming. An iconic squad of players. Zamora. Errea. Italian fashion. The Albion looking cool.
That is why the Brighton red and black AC Milan kit is my favourite Brighton football shirt.
In the last 31 years, the Bobby Moore Fund has incredibly raised over £30 million for bowel cancer research. Whilst great progress has been made, 45 people still die as a result of bowel cancer every day in the UK.
You can get involved by wearing your favourite football shirt on Friday April 26th, sharing on social media and donating £5 to support Cancer Research UK and the Bobby Moore Fund and their life-saving bowel cancer research. Sign up here.
