Jerseys

The 2019-20 South Africa Premier Soccer League (PSL) begins play on Aug. 3 in what’ll be the competition’s 24th season. The defending champions are the Mamelodi Sundowns — the country’s most successful side with nine titles — but they’ll face stern opposition from usual suspects like the Orlando Pirates and Kaizer Chiefs.

South African football is defined by its swagger, most notably in the kasi-influenced style of play that mixes skill, style and showboating to great effect.

(Editor's note: See update at bottom.)

Generally, it’s a stable source of income for clubs. It’s a simple formula: release new kits, fans buy said kits, make money.

But Huddersfield Town, recently relegated from the Premier League, forgot one key step: Don’t make the new kit look like shit.

Fans will buy just about anything to support their club, but there is a line. It appears Huddersfield and kit supplier Umbro have crossed that line with the 2019-20 home kit, which was released Wednesday.

After releasing a beautiful home jersey back on July 1 — the first of a new five-year deal with adidas — Arsenal is back with its away offering for the 2019-20 season, and the rumors were true: It’s a reimagined version of the famous “bruised banana” design from the early 1990s.

Obviously it’s yellow, it’s got a shaded zig-zag pattern and a navy crew neck collar with navy adidas stripes.

It’s difficult to feel all that great about the direction AS Roma is heading under American president James Pallotta, who admitted that last season was a “complete disaster.” Coupled with that has been Francesco Totti stepping down as club director while lamenting, “It was not my fault… Today is like dying. It would have been better to die,” and the ugly departure of fellow club stalwart Daniele De Rossi, who’s now reportedly set to retire at the age of 35.

Outside of Portugal, SC Braga is most widely known for one thing: the club’s home ground of Estádio Municipal de Braga. It was constructed in 2003 as a venue for UEFA Euro 2004, and it’s incredibly striking because it was carved from the Monte do Castro quarry that overlooks the city of Braga. In fact, the backdrop to one of the goals is the quarry’s rock wall. 

You love to see it. 

Forest Green Rovers, a League Two club based in Nailsworth, England, does things a bit differently from the rest of the world.

The team claims to be the greenest football club in the world, and, really, it’s hard to argue with that point.

The facilities are powered by renewable energy, players are only served vegan food and the grass is cut by a solar-powered robotic lawnmower (how cool is that?).