All change?

Right. Tottenham Hotspur, as all football fans will know, play in white. Inter Milan, the famous Italian club, play in dark blue and black stripes.

In their recent European tie, played at Tottenham's White Hart Lane football ground, Inter Milan played in an all-red strip.

Why?

In days gone by football teams had 'second-strips', or 'change-strips', to be used in the event of a 'colour clash'; that is, when two sides played in the same colours, or sufficiently similar colours to cause confusion.

The general principle was that, on such occasions, the away-team would wear their alternate colours. This principle gradually led to the term 'away-strip' replacing 'second-strip' or 'change-strip' as the more common reference ... but the principle behind the usage, surely, remained the same.

So why the Inter Milan colour change? I suspect this is another example of commercialism and money-men dictating terms in football. Somewhere along the line some sponsor has demanded that Inter Milan wear their new change strip on a regular enough basis to encourage more gullible people to dig deep into their pockets and fork out the not-inexpensive sum required to buy a replica shirt or kit, either for themselves or for their children.