Colombian Primera A Side Win Wearing Counterfeit Jerseys Bought from Street Vendor

Independiente used tape to create the numbers in the first half
Photos: Independiente Santa Fe

The Colombian Primera A division occasionally sees unusual occurrences.

Bogota side Independiente Santa Fe is one of their leading clubs but their marketing department will not look back on their match in Tunja with Boyaca Chico with fond memories.

5000 turned up at the Estadio de La Independencia to see the home side struggling against relegation, play one of the nation’s big boys.

The kitmen of the Bogota side will look back with even less fond memories should they still be employed next week. They forgot to include their white away kits (with red sleeves) for the 80 mile trip to Tunja and packed just the red shirts with white sleeves, not unlike EPL club Arsenal.

Boyaca Chico’s home kit is a dark blue and red checked shirt which was seen to clash with the red kits brought by the visitors. They refused to change to their own away strip, although they offered a kit of their own to Independiente who refused to wear it.

The visitors decided to play the first half in their official Umbro dark blue training tops with their shirt numbers hurriedly stuck on the back with tape.

Sadly, a combination of the humidity and the players’ sweat melted the glue which left the Bogota side with a half time dilemma.

That was resolved by a piece of ingenuity. The club sent someone outside to buy a set of jerseys from the stalls outside the stadium who were of course peddling  counterfeits at about $6 each.

The tape begins to melt

Their white shirts with red sleeves did not clash with the home side’s jerseys.

That still left the question of the numbers and the melting.

To avoid another sticky issue with the tape, the kitman daubed the numbers on the back of the shirts with a red felt pen.

Independiente Club President César Augusto Pastrana later apologised to Umbro Colombia, as well as the club sponsors including Honda and Pierre D´Agostini.

The kitmaker has accepted the apology and will continue its relationship with the club.

The visitors went home red faced if not red shirted, but the story had a happy ending.

They won 2-0, care of a goal in each shirt, … sorry each half, care of former Philadelphia Union star Carlos Valdez and Yulian Anchico

 Also See:

Match Gallery on Independiente Site

Match Report (in Spanish)

Whitecaps Forced to Borrow Fans Shirts

Quite re-marker-ble. Independiente play the second half in counterfeit tops.