title: The colour of a football outfit affects visibility and team success.
abstract: We investigated the impact of the colour of football outfits on localising football players and on the results of football matches. Two studies were conducted: an experimental study examining the effects of outfit colour on the assessment of the positions of computer-animated football players in a video set-up (study 1) and a retrospective study on professional football clubs' performances dependent on their outfit colours (study 2). The studies were conducted with 18 human volunteers aged 15-18 years (study 1) and league results from 10 professional European football teams over 17 years (1995-2013) (study 2). We analysed the number of correct assessments of the positions of virtual football players with different outfit colours (study 1) and analysed the relationship between match results and outfits' colours (study 2). Study 1 showed that the position of players wearing white outfits was better assessed in 5.2% of the trials compared to players wearing green outfits (P = 0.007). Study 2 showed that Manchester City conceded less goals against in away games in highly visible kits (r = 0.62; P = 0.024), while Newcastle United conceded less goals and won more points while playing in kits associated with low visibility (r = 0.63; P = 0.007; r = 0.50; P = 0.040, respectively). We conclude that the colour of football outfits affects evaluations of football players' positions on the field, with white tricots resulting in the best location assessment. The outfit colour may indirectly influence football match results, warranting more attention to the home and away shirts by team managers and football scientists.
authors.affiliation: a Radboud University , Nijmegen , The Netherlands.
authors.forename: Joris
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Olde Rikkert
authors.affiliation: b University of Twente , Enschede , The Netherlands.
authors.forename: Vincent De
authors.initials: VD
authors.lastname: Haes
authors.affiliation: c Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition and Behaviour, Department of Cognitive Neuroscience, Section Biophysics , 126 Radboud University Medical Centre Nijmegen , Nijmegen , The Netherlands.
authors.forename: Annemiek D
authors.initials: AD
authors.lastname: Barsingerhorn
authors.affiliation: d Department of Ophthalmology , 400 Radboud University Medical Center , Nijmegen , The Netherlands.
authors.forename: Thomas
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Theelen
authors.affiliation: e Department of Geriatric Medicine , 925 Radboud University Medical Center , Nijmegen , The Netherlands.
authors.forename: Marcel G M
authors.initials: MG
authors.lastname: Olde Rikkert
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D054874:Athletic Performance / Q000502:physiology*; D003020:Clothing; D003116:Color; D003198:Computer Simulation; D005538:Football / Q000502:physiology*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D014796:Visual Perception
keywords: colour; football; outfit; performance analysis; soccer; visual perception