Cold War Classic #7: Bulgaria vs Ireland, 1977

Our Cold War Classic series, made in conjunction with the brilliant Museum of Jerseys, continues this month with a second appearance for Bulgaria, while politically neutral Ireland make their debut. The mid-late ’70s saw a number of interesting of kit developments for both, including one particular Irish crest. See below for a preview and a link to the full article over on Museum of Jerseys.com. As usual amazing illustrations come from M.o.J. master Denis Hurley.

Cold War Classic no. 7 – Bulgaria v Republic of Ireland, 1977

…Compared to other western nations, this neutrality may have slightly lessened the intensity of trips across the Iron Curtain – such as the World Cup qualifier in Sofia in 1977 that we will be looking at – while no doubt also still a daunting task.

But with such journeys almost unheard of to the general public at the time, the athletes were probably more enlightened than most in being able to witness first-hand that locals from the ‘monstrous’ communist countries were actually friendly humans, just like at home.

On the kit front, the 1970s had already thrown up a couple of interesting situations for Ireland that have been covered on this website previously. With the likes of the French, Dutch and Germans leading the way in new concepts and designs, it was a time for change facilitated by new production techniques and a general creative freedom not seen in past generations…

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Cold War Classic #5 – Bulgaria v West Germany, 1984

We are now in full swing with our Cold War Classic series in conjunction with MuseumofJerseys.com. See below for a teaser of episode 5 and a link to the full article. Awesome kit illustrations masterfully done by the MoJ maestro Denis Hurley.

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Cold War Classic no.5, Bulgaria vs West Germany, 1984

“…The 1980 game, a World Cup qualifier in December, set the stage for what was to come in 1984 as snow could be seen in the areas surrounding the pitch. But, either it wasn’t really too cold that day, or else footballers were still harder in 1980 than their counterparts four years later, as the players wore what they normally would for any match.”

“As we saw in CWC 4 though, a precedent for players wearing extra gear to keep warm in cold weather had already long been set. And while this was originally restricted to tracksuit bottoms for goalkeepers (whose position inherently means they won’t be able to keep as warm during a game as the outfield players who run more, so fair enough), by the 80s this had graduated to leggings being worn liberally by outfielders on particularly”cold occasions.”

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