Central Lancashire Junior Football League ban Leyland Pirates Football Club from league over kit colour

A Leyland football club says it has been left £18,000 out of pocket over the banning of its players’ kit.

Leyland Pirates Football Club committee members have claimed that Central Lancashire Junior Football League which some of their players play in have banned their kit for being too dark. The club had a Rule 19 issued to them which relates to conditions of restricted visibility.

A spokesperson for the club said they were astonished by the news and had not been able to rest since receiving it. Hoping a resolution can be sought the team emailed the football league last week and are currently awaiting a response.

They said: “They have banned our kit which affects around 150 players and we have spent around £18,000 on them. We have appealed to the FA and are awaiting the outcome, but currently we have only one kit play in."

The email read: “We write as one committee to another in regards the rule that has recently been enforced on us for our home kits for the 147 players that are registered with your league within Under 11s to Under 15s. We find it troubling that we now approach a two-season plan with no home kit available to wear for these players.

“We have spent over £18,000 on new kits and half zips for the next two seasons with only 70 per cent of this coming from sponsorship. Our kits are out identity and all of our players wear the same kit and are proud to do so. We cannot simply afford to purchase another 147 players’ kits as well as a further 33 players kits for the players that will be playing at Under 11s next week.”

They added: “We followed Rule 19 and submitted our club colours as blue and black. Black shorts and black socks. At no point did anyone from the committee check with us the level of black within our kit.”

A Lancashire FA spokesperson said: “Our Football Services team has been liaising with Leyland Pirates over recent days to try to resolve the kit colour issue, ahead of a Lancashire FA County Cup fixture this weekend.

“We are also managing a complaint from the club with regard to decisions made by respective leagues relating to club colours as outlined in the Standard Code of Rules. No further comment on this will be made while the matter is processed by our Discipline team.”