Computers and Football Shirts

Football shirts are being developed which have their own on-board computer, which will be able to track the pace and acceleration of the wearer.

Researchers at the University of Birmingham, UK, who are specialists in "wearable"computers, are exploring ways of remotely monitoring the performance of people playing sports.

This will help to tackle the difficulties in analysing aspects of players' games such as speed-which can ordinarily only be explored in a laboratory setting.

With computer-carrying Football shirts, which send back data through a radio network, the performance of players in a live match can be recorded with great accuracy.

World Cup row

The three-year project is a pan-European academic venture, with universities in Germany, Italy, Austria and Holland also taking part. The lead institution is the National Technical University of Athens, in Greece, which is examining ways of inserting computers into a Liverpool football shirts.

Such a computerized football would mean that goal-line disputes, such as England's goal in the 1966 World Cup Final against West Germany, could be resolved with mathematical precision.

Researchers at the University of Birmingham have so far produced a prototype of a computer integrated with a sports shirt, which has a monitoring and transmitting system inside a tabard-style attachment.

In a spin

Lecturer in interactive systems design, Chris Baber, says that this equipment will now need to be reduced in size, so that it does not impede the player wearing the football shirt.

a spin in the washing machine.

Dr Baber says that the wiring would survive a wash, but the other components might need to be put into unobtrusive detachable pockets or patches to protect football shirts.

In the current three-year research project, which is receiving 200,000 funding, the Birmingham academics are considering that perhaps four or five players might wear these computer-carrying shirts-called the "Sensvest". But Dr Baber says that in the longer term an entire team could wear such shirts, and that a radio network could monitoreach of the players individually.

Everton Football Shirts - The History

In most cities with two major football teams , loyalties tend to run in the family. Not so in Liverpool where it is common for some members of the same family to support Liverpool while others get behind Everton . The two clubs are in fact intimately connected. Everton was formed in 1878 by a group of lads attending St Domingo's Church School who played at Stanley Park. Having rapidly established a name for themselves in the city, St Domingo's FC became Everton in November 1879. At the time it was normal for players who joined to play in the football shirts of their previous clubs (players had to supply their own kit in those amateur days). Rather than have such mixed arrangements, the secretary had all shirts dyed black and a two inch scarlet sash was sewn on . This led to the club being nicknamed "the Black Watch"after the famed army regiment. It was not until 1901 that the now famous blue shirts were adopted .

In 1880 Everton were attracting crowds of over 2,000 and in 1884 moved into an enclosed ground at Priory Road. The landowner soon objected to the numbers of rowdy fans on his land and the club moved again to a new ground off Anfield Road. In 1887 Everton entered the English Cup (now the FA Cup) for the first time and became embroiled in controversy over paying their players after a series of acrimonious games against Bolton Wanderers. Not only were Everton suspended for a month, the Liverpool Cup that they had recently won was taken away !

In 1888, Everton were asked to join the new Football League and in 1891 they won their first League Championship. This success prompted their landlord to double the yearly rent on the club's Anfield ground . Rather than meet this demand, the club leased a piece of waste land north of Stanley Park known as Mere Green Field. Within months the first purpose-built football stadium in England was built on the site which was opened by Lord Kinnaird and named Goodison Park. In the meantime, a new club, Liverpool FC, was formed to play in the now vacant Anfield.

In 1893 and 1897 Everton reached the FA Cup Final whilst wearing their now characteristic blue home football shirts but they did not win the trophy until 1906 and the following year they were beaten finalists once more. In 1914-15, the last season before the League was suspended for the duration of the First World War, Everton won the League title for the second time.

In 1925 Everton signed the young Dixie Dean from Tranmere Rovers. Dean had scored 27 goals in as many games for Rovers and in his first season for Everton, he scored 32 times in 38 games. In 1927-28, Dean created history when he scored 60 goals in 39 matches, a record that is unlikely to be beaten. The incredible thing is that George Camsell had set the record the previous season with 59 goals and with three games of the season left, Dean was still eight goals behind Camsell! The Dean era is regarded as the club's golden age , although they suffered the embarrasment of a season in Division Two in 1930-31. The"Toffees"(named for a striped mint flavoured boiled sweet made in the area) won the League Championship in 1928 and 1932, the FA Cup in 1933 and a fifth League championship in 1939. Dean retired in 1937 but his mantle was taken over by Tommy Lawton. Once again war interrupted the club's career and when football resumed Lawton was playing for Chelsea.

Everton were one of the first clubs to introduce a stripe to their shorts in 1930, something that became a signature of their otherwise conservative football shirts until it was dropped in 1966.