How to wash a football shirt

A printed shirt does not fade in the wash. It cracks, and almost always for the same few reasons. Wash it by hand and get the rest right, and the print outlives the season by years.

Best of all: by hand, not in the machine

The safest way to keep a print intact is to wash the shirt by hand. A basin of cold water, a little mild detergent, ten minutes to soak and a gentle press - without rubbing the print and without wringing it out. It takes five minutes, and it is the difference between a print that lasts years and one that starts cracking after a season. Even the gentlest machine cycle still puts the shirt through tumbling and friction that washing by hand simply avoids.

Inside out, always

The print and the crest are on the outside, so turning the shirt inside out puts the fabric between them and everything else. That holds by hand and in a machine alike, and it is the single habit that matters most - and it costs nothing.

And if it has to be the machine

We would rather you did not, but if there is no choice: 30°C at most, a delicate or sports cycle, the shirt inside out, and ideally inside a wash bag. Heat and tumbling together are what lift a heat-pressed number off the fabric, and there is nothing on a football shirt that needs hot water to come clean.

No fabric softener

Softener coats the fibres, and the fibres of a football shirt are meant to move air and moisture through them. It dulls the colour, it hurts the fabric, and on a printed shirt it works its way under the edges of the print.

Air dry, never a tumble dryer

A dryer is heat and tumbling together, which is exactly the combination a print cannot take. Hang the shirt in the shade - direct sun fades colour on its own - and it dries in a couple of hours, because the fabric is built to.

If you iron, never over the print

Iron the shirt inside out, on low, and keep the iron off the print, the numbers and the crest entirely. In practice a shirt hung to dry properly does not need ironing at all.

Stains and sweat

Deal with a stain the same day with cold water and a little mild detergent, rubbed in with your fingers rather than scrubbed. For a sweat smell, half an hour in cold water with a splash of white vinegar before the wash does more than any amount of detergent.