How Many Claret and Blue Football Teams are There?

Photo Credit – Ben Sutherland (no changes made) under Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic

In the top 6 English football tiers, there are several claret and blue football teams. If you’ve ever noticed this, you’re not alone, this is a traditional, yet common football kit colour combination, but why is it so popular?

Aston Villa were the first side to use this colour combination, yet their influence can be felt all across the globe, with many other teams adopting these kit colours in later years. In this article, we’re going to discuss why Aston Villa initially used these colours, and why other sides decided to do the same.

Which Football Teams Play in Claret and Blue?

There are six professional football teams who play in claret and blue:

• Aston Villa FC (Premier League)
• West Ham United (Premier League)
• Burnley FC (Premier League)
• Scunthorpe (Premier League)
• Trabzonspor (Süper Lig)
• Colorado Rapids (MLS)

Claret and Blue Football Teams in England

In England, there are four football teams that wear claret and blue – Aston Villa FC, West Ham United, Burnley FC and Scunthorpe United.

Aston Villa FC

Aston Villa were the claret and blue football kit pioneers. It’s led to believe that the Birmingham-based club were the first to wear this colour combination, all the way back in 1887. Since then, Villa have inspired 5% of the football league to don these colours, and this colour combination has also made its way overseas.

It is claimed that Oliver Whateley was behind the design of claret body and blue sleeved jersey all the way back in the 1880s. Whateley was a graphic artist by trade and Aston Villa’s third England international.

Claret and blue football kits grew in popularity in later years because of Aston Villa’s roaring success in Division One during the late 1800s and early 1900s. They won the first Division five times between the years of 1893 and 1900. Other sides wanted to replicate their kit colours to achieve similar success, and this is one of the reasons why the colour combination became more popular.

Still to this day, we associate Aston Villa with claret and blue.

Aston Villa Notable Players

Some notable players to have worn the Aston Villa claret and blue in recent years are:

• Gareth Barry
• Jack Grealish
• Olof Mellberg
• Dion Dublin
• Stiliyan Petrov

West Ham United

Claret and blue are West Ham United’s colours too. The story as to why the London club wear this colour combination is a fascinating one.

In 1899, William Dove, an international sprinter, was challenged to win a race against four Aston Villa Players. Dove won the race, and the Villa players owed him a wager, however they didn’t have enough money to pay him.

Instead, one of the players who was responsible for washing the kits at the time, decided to give Dove an Aston Villa shirt. It turned out that William’s son, Charlie Dove, was a fullback for Thames Ironworks. From there on in, Thames Ironworks decided to wear claret and blue colours.

In 1900, Thames Ironworks disbanded, but soon after became West Ham United. If you look closely at West Ham’s badge, you’ll see a reference to the ironworks, as well as West Ham’s nickname being ‘The Irons’.

Because of this brilliant story, West Ham and claret and blue have remained associated with each other for well over a century.

West Ham Notable Players

Some key players to play for West Ham in claret and blue over the years have been:

• Bobby Moore
• Mark Noble
• Geoff Hurst
• Paolo Di Canio
• Trevor Brooking

Burnley FC

You’d think that Burnley FC, sometimes referred to as ‘the Clarets’, would hold more ownership of the claret and blue kit colour combination, but that’s not the case. The reason that their wear these colours is simply because of Aston Villa’s great influence.

Before 1910, Burnley trialled wearing a number of different coloured kits, including blue, green, pink and yellow. During the 1910 season, Burnley decided to adopt the claret and blue colour combination, the season in which Aston Villa won their sixth Division One title.

A fellow football league founding member, Burnley played in green for a decade from 1900 to 1910, before switching to claret and blue. Burnley hoped that changing their kit colours to claret and blue would bring them more success on the football field.

Burnley Notable Players

Some notable players we might associate with Burnley and claret and blue are:

• Chris Wood
• Nick Pope
• Graham Alexander
• Jay Rodriguez

Crystal Palace

A club that’s not so commonly related to claret and blue is South London club Crystal Palace. They adopted the claret and blue colour scheme in the early 19th century after Aston Villa donated them a replica kit during Crystal Palace’s primitive years.

Another link between these two football clubs is that Aston Villa’s secretary left the club to join Crystal Palace, so this could be a reason why Palace chose to wear claret and blue. It wasn’t until 1908 when Palace decided to start changing their kit colours to be more unique.

Crystal Palace are now renowned for wearing ‘cardinal red and blue’ a combination of colours that has helped the club differentiate away from being a claret and blue football team.

Scunthorpe United

In 1910, the year in which Aston Villa were champions of England, a team made up of both Scunthorpe and North Lindsey United became Scunthorpe United. That same year, newly formed Scunthorpe United chose claret and blue as their kit colours. At this time, it’s quite clear that claret and blue football kits were popular due to Aston Villa’s success.

For 50 years, Scunthorpe United proudly wore claret and blue, becoming a key part of the movement around claret and blue football teams.

Scunthorpe did have a spell where they moved away from claret and blue colours. In 1960, the club moved to a white and blue kit combination and stuck with this for nine years until 1969. From 1969, they then moved to an all red kit design until 1976 before incorporating a red and white combination until 1982.

Since 1982, the club have stuck with their claret and blue kit design, and it doesn’t look like they’ll be changing anytime soon.

Claret and Blue Football Teams Around the World

Trabzonspor

Aston Villa’s heritage has been remembered across the world for many years. In fact, around 60 years later, Turkish side Trabzonspor decided to wear a claret and blue football kit in honour of Aston Villa. They decided to do this from the year that they formed, in 1967.

Trabzonspor are arguably the biggest side in Turkey behind Galatasaray, Fenerbahçe and Beşiktaş, and this shows how far Aston Villa’s legacy has spread across the world. There is another theory that exists regarding their kit colour combination. The belief is that four Trabzon based teams joined forces and chose to wear opposite colours to their local rivals, İdmanocağı.

Although they have a claret and blue football kit, their designs tend to differ to Aston Villa’s. The Turkish Süper Lig side have worn a range of different style shirts, including claret and blue striped versions.

The club achieved promotion to the Turkish top flight in 1976 and were the first club based outside of Istanbul to win the title, an incredible feat.

Colorado Rapids

Claret and blue football kits have even made their way to the MLS in America. Colorado Rapids, founded in 1995, went through a big rebranding in 2007 which resulted in the club choosing their football kit colours. They decided to choose claret and blue, and their club badge was designed using this colour combination too.

Danny Ings

In 2023, English striker Danny Ings made history when he moved to West Ham United from Aston Villa. The striker became the first player to play for all three Premier League claret and blue football teams – Aston Villa, Burnley and West Ham.

Frequently Asked Questions