It always seems as though the numbers are all over the place. I get that they can’t just be numbered 1 – 11 as the team is often much larger and will differ per starting lineup but who delegates who wears the ‘number 40’ shirt and does the team even have that much players with reserves & substitutes taken into account?
Who decides who gets to inherit a number from a retired legend for example?
In: 8
Originally, when they implemented numbers on jerseys, they were given in a match by match basis, using the numbers 1 to 11. When subs were allowed, they used numbers from 12 onwards, depending on how many subs were allowed on the bench.
But at one point, competitions started to request a specific number to be used in the entire tournament, so they had to allocate numbers for the entire squad. Because of this, players started to ask for the same number in all competitions, as a sort of personal brand. And this is why there are more and more high numbers, because they’re less likely to clash with other player’s.
Latest Answers