More Than a Shirt by Joey D’Urso: ­Football shirts, filthy money and sportswashing

Paying for the shirt: what football kits reveal about soccer’s filthy money and sportswashing

From sponsors with links to Putin to jerseys featuring a cartel boss, Joey D’Urso takes us on an eye-opening tour of modern soccer

Worldwide phenomenon: replica football jerseys have become ubiquitous on the street as well as in the stands

Darragh McManus Today at 03:30

When I was a youngster in the 1980s, all of us passionately following English soccer clubs and the Ireland team, nobody wore replica jerseys – or hardly anyone. One kid came to hurling training in full Spurs kit one evening, around 1984 or ’85; he might have been clad in diamond-studded spandex, such was our wide-eyed amazement.

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