The Women's Super League club will wear their burgundy away shorts with their home shirt for the rest of the current campaign after discussions with players; Manchester City Women did so for the first time during Wednesday night's 6-0 victory over Blackburn in the Conti Cup
Thursday 27 October 2022 14:08, UK
Manchester City Women will no longer wear white shorts as part of their home kit to help players "perform at their highest level" while on their periods.
In a joint statement, the club and kit manufacturer Puma announced City would find an alternative colour scheme starting from next season after discussions with the players.
City, however, have brought forward that decision and will wear their burgundy away shorts with their home shirt for the rest of the current campaign.
The first time they did so was during Wednesday night's 6-0 victory over Blackburn in the Conti Cup.
The statement read: "Puma and Manchester City take pride in working closely with our players to support them and create the best possible environment for them to feel comfortable and perform at their highest level.
"As a result of player feedback and the underlying topic of women wanting to move away from wearing white shorts while on their periods, we have decided to implement changes to the products we offer to our female players.
"Starting from the 2023/24 season, we will not be providing white shorts to our female athletes. We will always provide an alternative for our home, away and third kits to solve the issue highlighted by women across all sports."
City are the most high-profile women's football side to have swapped shorts, following West Brom, Stoke and Scottish side Livingston in changing kit colour.
Asked last week about the issue, manager Gareth Taylor said: "We've always spoken about supporting the players as best we possibly can, about improving levels for the girls as much as we possibly can, not just at this club, across the board for women's football.
"I think it's something we need to look at for sure, just so that we are offering the top-level support that we need to for the players."
The Lionesses wore an all-white kit during last summer's successful European Championship campaign and after England's 1-0 win over Austria in their opening game, forward Beth Mead revealed they had given their feedback to Nike regarding their concerns over wearing white shorts.
The Arsenal forward said: "That is something we have fed to Nike. I think hopefully they are going to change that.
"It is very nice to have an all-white kit but sometimes it's not practical when it's the time of the month.
"We have discussed it as a team and we have fed that back to Nike."
They were comments that were backed up by team-mate Georgia Stanway, who said: "I think next year there is potentially [going to be] a colour change.
"It's hard because once you're on the grass nothing else matters."
