 England's kits have changed but the iconic Three Lions has remained a constant ( PA Images Contributor/Press Association Images) The tale of Finney's philanthropy is unfurled in a definitive history* of international football's oldest shirt, dating back 150 years to 30 November 1872, and the crest entrusted to each generation of England World Cup crusades. Many of us have owned a replica shirt, or worn one as an act of vacuous patriotism, and as Harry Kane's Boys of '22 get to work in Qatar, our fashion statements will be out in force next Monday for the Three Lions' group opener against Iran. But how much do we know about that badge we kiss? In Three Lions On A Shirt, a 384-page treasure trove of the national team's kits and the stars who wore it through the ages, we learn that England wore white for 199 consecutive internationals. The){kind=link}
From the Sunday league team who all wore Sir Tom Finney’s No.7 shirt to Sir Stanley Matthews making history in blue, the real history of international sport’s oldest jersey is in the badge
They were the first Sunday league team to turn out in match-worn England kit â with every outfield player wearing the No.7 shirt.
Sir Tom Finney, the Preston plumber who stayed true to his roots, once gave away a set of his England shirts to one of his local grassroots clubs after removing the Three Lions crest from each one because his generation considered the badge more precious than the garment itself.
Somewhere in Lancashire heartlands where Finney was revered as one of England’s greatest players, there was once a pub team dressed in the emperor’s clothes. And they probably never knew they were modelling nest eggs worth a fortune.
“I took the badges off the shirts I kept and kitted out an entire team near my home,” said Finney back in 1984. “It became the first local league team ever to wear the England shirt.”