Patches on a football shirt

The small badges on the sleeve are not decoration. Each one says something about where and when the shirt was worn, and getting them wrong is the quickest way to make a good shirt look off.

What a patch actually is

A patch is the competition's own mark, worn on the sleeve for the matches of that competition only. A club playing in two competitions wears different sleeves on different nights, which is why the same shirt exists both with patches and without.

Which patch belongs where

Each league has one of its own, and they are not interchangeable:

• Premier League: the lion on a purple shield, on both sleeves.
• La Liga: the league mark on one sleeve.
• Serie A: the league badge, with a scudetto on the chest for the reigning champion.
• Bundesliga: the league mark on the right sleeve.
• Champions League: the starball on both sleeves, plus the respect mark - and the lettering on the back changes too.
• World Cup and Euro: the tournament mark, and for the holders a star or a winners badge.

Does a shirt need them?

It depends what you want the shirt to be. Without patches it is the shirt as sold in a club shop, which is what most people picture. With them it is the shirt as worn on the pitch on a particular night, which is what collectors and anyone buying a specific season tend to want.

The one that is easy to get wrong

Champions League patches on a shirt from a season the club did not play in Europe, or league patches on a national team shirt, read as wrong to anyone who follows the game. If you are not sure which season had which, ask us before ordering rather than after.