Football boots worn by the modern day

Red and Yellow and Pink and etc, no I’ve not gone crazy singing about a rainbow, it’s the different coloured boots I’m seeing week in week out worn by our fashion conscious football stars. Alan Ball (god rest his soul) was the first player I believe who strayed from black boots when he took to the field in an all white pair, these days if a player wore a black pair he’d probably be sent off.


The player who revolutionised the design of the football boot I believe was Craig Johnson, the Australian midfielder with more hair than Brian May who graced the field for Middlesbrough and Liverpool, he invented the Predator (a boot with fins on the top to help with power and accuracy), whoever said the more psychedelic the colour the better you will play is way beyond me.

Then we come to the blades (studs don’t seem to be part of football boots no more) there supposed to help you move more gracefully, quickly around the pitch, but with how much water they put on the pitches these days I think a 3 inch stud would be more accommodating. Then there’s what the boots are made out of, when I was a lad playing footy, you had to have pretty strong legs just to be able to swing your foot when your football boots were on, think the leather was as thick as a car tyre, these days I’d get more protection from me Del boy slippers. So is it all down to fashion. Sir Alex has banned his youth team players from wearing garish coloured boots, apparently you have to earn the right. The facts are or as I see them, since the boot was revolutionised to a comfy slipper with blades on the bottom the injuries are becoming more regular, i.e broken metatarsals are more regular than your local buses, but can the boots be at fault for the rise in cruciate or ligament injuries in the knees, surely the blade mechanics aren’t as sturdy as the 13 studs I used to play in ?.

My final say, yes I have nearly finished, FIFA or UEFA have implemented that all sock tape and under shorts and shirts have to match the kit the team run out onto the pitch in, how long before they implement the rule to boots?.
Stu M.