A colour blindness charity has said that they are “very disappointed” after a kit clash caused Swindon Town’s game with Walsall to become very difficult to see.

During Town’s first game of the season at the Nigel Eady County Ground, Swindon wore their traditional home kit of all red against a Walsall side in their changed strip of all black with red trim as the away side ran out comfortable victors on the day.

Despite this being clear for the majority of the 7,786 crowd, for any colour-blind fans in the stands, both teams would have looked to be wearing a very similar dark grey strip, especially with the red detailing on Walsall’s strip blending into the black main colour.

Colour Blind Awareness show what the game looked like to colour blind fansColour Blind Awareness shows what the game looked like to colour-blind fans (Image: Andy Crook)

The EFL does offer guidance to clubs, which would allow a home team to wear an away or third kit during home games to avoid a clash or even mix various shirts and short combinations to help colour-blind people, although it is not a rule as such.

Kathryn Albany-Ward, Founder and CEO of Colour Blind Awareness, said: “It’s very disappointing to see a colour blind kit clash so early in the new season.

“The FA/UEFA guidelines ‘Colour Blindness in Football’ were issued in 2017 and clearly show that all-red kits are difficult to distinguish from all-black kits for large numbers of colour-blind people.

“The EFL has had its own, well-publicised, regulation change to avoid such kit clashes in place for a few seasons and in our opinion it’s now up to clubs to take responsibility for their own actions and how their decisions affected their fans, players and sponsors.”

Aside from just fans having issues, research into the topic has found that five per cent of elite, male footballers are colour-blind, roughly one in every squad on average, and clashes like this can also negatively impact their performance as it is harder to tell between the shirts at a glance.

An EFL Spokesperson said: “Ahead of the 2022/23 season the League amended its regulations in an effort to reduce the number of games taking place with kit clashes which makes teams difficult to distinguish for people who are colour blind.

“The EFL understands the challenges faced by some supporters and will support Clubs in identifying where a potential ‘colour blind kit clash’ may occur, with joint guidance also issued by the FA, in conjunction with the EFL and Premier League on the matter of colour blindness.”