With the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic wiping out the vast majority of this year’s major sporting events, UEFA EURO 2020 is one of the biggest events in the sporting calendar to fall victim to the outbreak.
After UEFA announced that the tournament was to be postponed until 2021, and with how well-received our recent article on classic football shirts was, we decided to host our own European Championships’… of kits!
The tournament, which took place via UCFB’s Twitter account, involved followers interacting with polls to vote for their favourite kit to determine a match’s result.
🏆 @EURO2020... of kits! 👕
— University Campus of Football Business (@ucfb) March 20, 2020
Since the Euro's have been postponed, we've decided to host our own! 👀
Over the next week you'll have the chance to decide which nation has the best home kit 🤩
First up, it's the play-offs, and 🇮🇸 vs 🇷🇴...
Vote in the poll below 👇 #Euro2020Kits pic.twitter.com/KbHaxBGU4o
There was a catch, though. We were only permitted to contest pre-confirmed kits for the tournament, or a team’s latest release, which meant no ‘leaked’ shirts were allowed to be used during the competition.
Aside from that, the tournament format was completely identical to the main event, with 16 play-off teams competing for four places at the finals, ahead of a 24-team main competition.
Three home nation sides were represented in the tournament, though only Wales and Northern Ireland managed to reach the semi-finals. Meanwhile, both Scotland and the Republic of Ireland failed to qualify for the finals after Slovakia’s slick Nike home shirt was chosen to progress ahead of the Irish, and Israel overcame the Tartan Army.
Now to decide the other Path B play-off finalist, before we take a little break... 👀 🏆
— University Campus of Football Business (@ucfb) March 20, 2020
Who gets your vote? Slovakia? Or the Republic of Ireland? 🇸🇰 🇮🇪
Vote below! 👇 #Euro2020Kits pic.twitter.com/je9pnsEwyN
England faced-off with Iceland in the quarter-finals, looking to avenge their humiliation at Euro 2016, though history would repeat itself as Iceland earned a shock win.
Unfortunately for Northern Ireland, they couldn’t reach the final after UCFB’s Twitter followers deemed the Netherlands’ latest home shirt was a more deserving entry. They would, however, pip France in the third-place play-off.
Now it's the one you've all been waiting for 👀 🥁
— University Campus of Football Business (@ucfb) March 25, 2020
Is football finally coming home (well, sort of), or will Iceland repeat their Euro 2016 heroics? 🏴 🇮🇸
Vote for your favourite below 👇 #Euro2020Kits pic.twitter.com/VSBNk6d6Ey
Competing against the Netherlands for the chance to be crowned UCFB Euro 2020 of Kits champion was Wales, and after receiving a staggering 66.8% of votes, the Welsh comfortably clinched the title.
Which kit will be crowned the winner of our @EURO2020 of Kits tournament? 🏆 🙌
— University Campus of Football Business (@ucfb) March 28, 2020
Vote using the poll below! 👇 #Euro2020Kits👕 pic.twitter.com/fmeUeCZ2Ij
Here are the teams who took part in UCFB’s Euro 2020 of Kits:
Play-off stages
Iceland, Romania, Bulgaria, Hungary, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Northern Ireland, Slovakia, Republic of Ireland, Scotland, Israel, Norway, Serbia, Georgia, Belarus, North Macedonia, Kosovo.
Path winners: Iceland, Northern Ireland, Norway, Kosovo.
Final tournament
Wales, Italy, Turkey, Switzerland, Belgium, Russia, Finland, Denmark, Netherlands, Kosovo, Austria, Ukraine, England, Croatia, Norway, Czech Republic, Spain, Sweden, Poland, Northern Ireland, Iceland, Portugal, France, Germany.
Winners: Wales
The results are in... 🥁
— University Campus of Football Business (@ucfb) March 30, 2020
🏴 Congratulations to the winners of our @EURO2020 of Kits tournament, WALES! 👏 🏆
Thank you to everyone that has got involved in voting for their favourite kit, we hope you've all enjoyed it! 🙌#Euro2020Kits👕 pic.twitter.com/yJm6QlgnE1