Little-known EFL rule that means change of strip for upcoming Doncaster Rovers fixture
Doncaster Rovers' annual Community Day will take place later this month with the home game against Blackpool.
The meeting with the Tangerines (Saturday, March 14) is the designated game for the Club Doncaster Foundation scheme which sees numerous activities take place to raise awareness of the charity. As has become custom in recent years, the first team squad will also wear a specially-designed fourth shirt. This year's kit is a striking green shirt designed by Louis Tomlinson, featuring the charity's refreshed logo on the front.
The shirt has proved wildly popular since its release in January and the game against Ian Evatt's side will be the only chance for fans to see the team in it. However, the knock-on effect is that Blackpool will not be able to wear their traditional orange home kit that day.
That's owing to a little-known rule brought in by the EFL a few years ago which allows teams to effectively mix and match their kits to aid those people who are colour blind.
Colour blindness, or colour vision deficiency (CVD), affects men disproportionately more than women with one in every 12 males having it, compared to just one in every 200 females. The condition makes distinguishing colours difficult and is also known as 'red-green' deficiency as those two colours prove most problematic although not exclusively.
The EFL has confirmed to the Free Press that after discussions with both clubs, a clash of green and orange means that Blackpool will be sporting their white away kit for the upcoming fixture – a rarity with neither team wearing their traditional home kit for a league game.