Why do we wear all white on European nights? The story behind a Spurs tradition...

A tradition stretching back 63 years will continue this evening when we step out for Matchday One of the league phase of the UEFA Europa League against Qarabag at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium (8pm UK).

The players will be back in the all-white kit that has been synonymous with Tottenham Hotspur playing in European competition since our first foray into Europe in the European Cup as English champions in 1961.

The obvious question is, 'why did we switch our blue shorts for white and go with an all-white kit?'

The answer is all documented in the brilliant coffee table book The Spurs Shirt and, as we run the explanation below, fans won't be surprised to hear it was down to the genius of our greatest manager, Bill Nicholson...

Brilliant whites

From The Spurs Shirt

Under the guidance of legendary manager Bill Nicholson, the colours of lilywhite and blue became synonymous not just with success but with success achieved in the right way – in style. During the glorious 1960/61 season, Spurs set record after record on their way to an era-defining league and cup Double, earning the mantle ‘Super Spurs’. But they weren’t stopping there. Nicholson, ever the ambitious purist, now set his sights on taking on the best that Europe had to offer.

What sets great managers like Nicholson apart is the constant search to discover areas where even the slightest advantage might be gained. The great man would obsessively seek out small details which could make a difference to player performance, and that included the playing kit. ‘Bill Nick’ was a pioneer of the school of thought that considered style in terms of a potential performance advantage – the ‘if you look smart, you play smart’ ethos.

This was of course an era when the team manager had influence over all aspects of the football club, and that included having the final say on the club’s kit colour and design.

This attention to detail in terms of the playing strip was seen in Bill Nick’s first full season in charge of Spurs, when he changed the home shirt to Umbro’s lighter cotton, short-sleeved v-neck ‘Continental’ (later ‘International’) style. And there was a further twist to the club’s home strip for Tottenham’s debut on the European stage.

When the team ran out for their first-ever competitive European fixture against Polish side Gornik Zabrze in September 1961, the players were wearing white shorts rather than their traditional navy. The match represents the very beginning of the club’s glorious European history and the start of a unique tradition whereby Spurs-– other than for a handful of exceptions during the 1990s - have always worn white shorts with their white shirts and socks when playing in continental competition.

The popular story is that the team adopted this all-white strip for its pioneering ventures into continental football because of Bill Nicholson’s admiration for the all-conquering Real Madrid side of the late 1950s. But did Bill Nick - like one of his playing and managerial peers of the period, Don Revie, who insisted during the summer of 1961 that Leeds United permanently adopt an all-white kit in the style of Real Madrid - want his Spurs side to emulate the Spaniards, not just in how they played but how they looked? The truth of the matter - like the fact that Spurs did not copy Preston North End when switching their colours to white and navy - is almost certainly less romantic but sheds further light on the genius of Bill Nicholson and his meticulous attention to every detail.

Spurs had actually been experimenting with the team strip for some time, especially as a means of improving player visibility in floodlit games. These were the early days of floodlights (the first league match under lights was not played until 1956) and the lights themselves were of a much lesser quality than those we are familiar with today, meaning playing conditions could be gloomy to say the least. So one of Nicholson’s innovations when he took over as manager in 1958 was to introduce an alternative change kit to the club’s traditional (and Nicholson’s favoured) dark navy shirts, bringing in an alternative change strip of all-amber which he thought would help the players to see each other more clearly under lights.

Going back even further to September 1956 - when Nicholson was assistant to Jimmy Anderson - Spurs wore white shorts as part of a home strip for the first time in a floodlit friendly against Racing Club de Paris. Indeed, not only did they play the match in all-white, they also experimented with shirts made from a shiny, reflective material known as Rayon. The idea was that the combination of all-white and the shiny material would help the players to see each other in the murky light. Two weeks later the same kit got a run-out for the Anglo-Scottish Floodlit League home game with Partick Thistle; the programme for that match describing Spurs as playing in ‘Corinthian all-white’.

The Rayon shirts were ditched after a handful of games because the material was very hot and uncomfortable for the players (although an amber change kit made from the same material was trialled in 1958), but the idea of white shorts for improved visibility in floodlit games prevailed. Under Bill Nicholson’s management, an all-white kit was worn away to Wolverhampton Wanderers in March 1959, with white shirts and shorts worn - albeit with blue socks - away to Sheffield Wednesday during the 1959/60 season, as well as for a floodlit friendly match against Torpedo Moscow in November 1959, when the fact that the game was played in fog almost certainly reinforced the logic behind the idea.

So although Nicholson, like many in football, admired Real Madrid, the extraordinary winners of the first five European Cups, the reason for the decision to wear white shorts for European matches - always played in midweek and usually under floodlights - was far less romantic. It was a purely practical choice aimed at maximising player performance. The fact that Real Madrid also played in all-white is a coincidence, although the myth may well have been perpetuated by the fact that when they became the first British winners of a European trophy by winning the European Cup Winners’ Cup in 1963 the Spurs players were not just wearing the same colours as the famous Spanish team but the exact same style of Umbro jersey.

The shirt that many consider the classic Spurs shirt even appeared in the Umbro catalogue as the ‘Real’ jersey and was, according to the manufacturer, 'the choice of the world famous team Real Madrid, and many other leading British teams'.

Ironically, the game away to Gornik in Poland - the first occasion when Spurs wore white shorts designed to improve visibility in a competitive European match - was played in daylight. However, Nicholson had made his decision and the tradition had begun, although this appears to have been lost on the Spurs stars who played in the match.

“We just turned up in the dressing room for the game and there was the all-white kit,” Cliff Jones recalls. “No-one said anything; nothing was said to us. We just focused on the game coming up.”

“Nobody ever mentioned Real Madrid, ever,” concurs Phil Beal. “Although I absolutely loved playing in all-white, it made you feel 10 feet tall, unbeatable.” And Ricky George, a young apprentice at the time, concurs: “The all-white kit was for visibility. It was Bill Nick’s way of looking for those marginal gains. Those nights at White Hart Lane, under the lights, were just very special.”

“We loved playing in all-white,” continues Jones. “I honestly cannot say for certain it made any difference in making us see each other better under the floodlights, but we did love playing in it. European nights we felt fresher, the air was different.”

The late, great, Alan Gilzean put it slightly more succinctly. “It just felt special,” he said.