Football fans can be a passionate bunch. Colours represent your team in all walks of life, and the thought of wearing even an item of clothing with the colour of a rival is just unbearable for some.
For fans of Olympique Lyon, the presence of their players wearing the launch colourway of the new adidas X Speedportal has proved too much, with green being the colour of rivals AS Saint-Etienne. Five of the players that started the game for Lyon wear the X Speedportal, with 13 of the squad all wearing the boot.
This feeling of unrest comes despite the fact that St-Etienne are currently competing in Ligue 2, and that they received an absolute spanking at the hands of Le Havre on the weekend. Last week Lyon shared training images that showed the likes of Malo Gusto and Rayan Cherki with the boots, with several fans expressing their disapproval on social media at that point.
Former striker Sidney Govou also reacted to the issue and pointed out that he had worn green boots for one match and three training sessions before former manager and Lyon legend Bernard Lacombe told him to throw them away. But this is hardly the first time that a team has worn boots that are the colour of a rival.
An easy solution with Lyon would be for players to switch out into the blacked out Shadowportal colourway , an option that is more commonly taken up by grassroots and lower leagues, although it's unlikely adidas would be willing to see a host of their premium players not wearing the current on-pitch colourway. With the ever increasing range of colours on offer, there will inevitably be issues if fans want to find them, but this incident perhaps was more of an issue due to the overwhelming number of players wearing the launch look of the X Speedportal.
