The History of Squad Numbers

There are many different historical numbering systems, based on how formations evolved in each country, and it could be argued that Uruguay’s is one of the most logical. Uruguay won two of …

In one of the site’s early articles, we looked at the mode of numbering which Italy favoured at major finals until the 1998 World Cup – apart from goalkeepers, who …

No matter how much one may try to be cool, it’s hard not to descend to the levels of screaming schoolgirls at a One Direction gig when David Squires acknowledges …

This post had been intended to be about just one thing – a kind-of example of squad numbers in the Football League in the 1-11 days – but further digging brought …

Simon Treanor is somebody we’ve regularly engaged with on social media and we were delighted when he got in touch offering to write a piece based on how he assigned numbers …

Given how ubiquitous permanent squad numbers have become, it’s easy to forget that they are still a relatively new phenomenon in ‘ordinary’, domestic football. After an experiment in the 1993 …

As regular readers of the blog will know, the Netherlands have featured heavily here. The country was at the vanguard of the alphabetical numbering movement, it fielded 1-11 in two consecutive …

Our last blog post finished with the words, “Wales represent the best best chance of seeing 1-11 on the pitch together in the latter stages”, but we’ll be honest and …

Every so often, we hear phrases about how numbers mean little these days in terms of positions, while articles on the subject will generally focus on egregious offences. We felt …

Three players have played in five different World Cup finals competitions. While Gianluigi Buffon was Italy’s number 22 at France 98, he wore 1 in 2002, 2006, 2010 and 2014. …