Mayo to wear white 1951-inspired jersey in All-Ireland final against Kerry

Mayo will wear a specially designed white jersey for Sunday week’s All-Ireland senior football final against Kerry – the same colour they wore in the 1951 decider. Mayo wore white when they beat Meath that year for the county’s last Sam Maguire triumph.

Due to a clash of colours between the current traditional Mayo and Kerry kits, a coin toss took place on Monday to determine which of the teams would be required to wear their alternative strip on July 26th.

Kerry won the toss, which was conducted by the Central Competitions Control Committee and witnessed by the respective county secretaries.

However, Mayo officials felt their navy kit with a Croagh Patrick design was still too close in colour with Kerry’s dark shade of green and they made a representation to Croke Park seeking permission to design a new jersey for the final.

Each county has to lodge their two official kit colours at the start of the campaign – a regular jersey and an alternative one.

Given concerns around a colour clash and with a heightened awareness of issues in relation to colour blindness, the GAA granted Mayo permission to come up with a new jersey.

After negotiations between the Mayo county board, kit manufacturer O’Neills and jersey sponsor Elverys, it is understood Andy Moran’s team will wear a white jersey with the official Mayo crest and Elverys branding.

[ Stephen Rochford: Mayo have improved immensely, but is it enough to stage an upset?Opens in new window ]

Mayo wore an all-white commemorative kit against Kerry when the sides met in the National Football League at Austin Stack Park in March – a fixture the Kingdom won comfortably. That jersey, to mark the 75-year anniversary since Mayo’s last All-Ireland final triumph, carried a vintage crest and no sponsorship across the front.

In their recent All-Ireland SFC final meetings against Kerry, Mayo wore their traditional green and red strip in 1997 and 2006, but in 2004 they wore a predominately red kit.

Click here to read article