Ultra Tosko: Sometimes at odds

"In football practising is an essential point that the members of one team should be clearly distinguished from those of the other. The only way this can be put in effect is for each club to have a distinct uniform as the diversity of colors is displayed" states a recognised rule of the association football laid down in the early days of the game.

It happened to play with other colours. There is even a curious case in 1937 when the club of Botev Plovdiv declared as a basic scheme of black and white instead of traditional gold and black strips.

First time I saw the Canaries` away kit in the season 1984/1985 when we clashed FC Minyor at their ground in Pernik. It was December and the pitch was boggy as hell. We came out in red shirts. Just remember only this as it is hard to say now whether the shorts were white or black, the more so after dozen of minutes all were in mud. Before this game I have only heard of our away colours, but I’ve never seen them in real. One or two years earlier we had played for Intertoto Cup against yellow teams - Eintracht Braunschweig and IF Elfsborg, so I knowledged we had been "almost like the CSKA". No wonder. At that time, all top clubs in Bulgaria generally have been clothing rationing limited by centralized supplies like all goods in the communist regime. Most probably we played with the cska-wise kits as same as they had played their two matches away versus AC Monaco (once for the European Cup 1982/83 and once for UEFA Cup 1984/85) in our colours. It can be seen on down collage where the two pics above are theirs in comparison to ours below.

Next time I faced on live our second uniform in a friendly against 1FC Lokomotive Leipzig. The Canaries came out in red and black stripes, shorts and socks in black and that was the most remarkable at all as it ended zero-zero.

In the 1990s away matches we wore plain white tops, also pale red-white candy striped and white with green sleeves, all Diadora`s. These later became must-have items for the club's young fans, proudly worn on the weekends and summer holidays. Additionally the Canaries played quite a lot of games even at home dressed in a Puma`s white shirt with yellow-black sleeves.

Over the years we've had different secondary color scheme and from a distance of time I percieve that our finest are burgundy (RGB 130-0-30) and sky blue (RGB 30-175-230). >>>A humble collection of BPFC kits<<<

Interest in football clothing has never been higher, largely fuelled by the internet as modern football factories are becoming more and more sophisticated, merciless to the traditions of clubs` decoration. Meanwhile @Kit Crimes charts are stalking. Personally I find it derisive to look at teams coming in atypical dyes or playing in spare kits in matches against non-clashed colours. Let us stay old-fashioned as a true classic.