Squad number
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In team sports, the squad number, shirt number, jersey number, sweater number, or uniform number is the number worn on a player's outfit. The number is typically displayed on the rear of the jersey, often accompanied by the surname, and sometimes it is displayed on the front also. It is used to identify the player to officials, other players, and official scorers; in some sports, it is also indicative of the player's position.
Football (soccer)
In football (soccer), the first advent of players wearing numbered shirts came on 25 August 1928, when Arsenal and Chelsea wore numbered shirts in their matches against The Wednesday (renamed Sheffield Wednesday soon after) and Swansea Town, respectively. After a number of experiments with the system - which met with opposition on the basis that numbers on shirts would "spoil club colours", it was decided to make them a permanent feature. The eleven players starting a match would wear shirts numbered from one to eleven, and a player could find himself wearing a range of different numbers over the course of a season.
Although there were no hard and fast rules as to which number represented which position (especially given football's varied formations), a de facto standard emerged over time and was employed by most teams, with few exceptions:
- Goalkeepers generally wore the number 1 shirt. This convention has become almost universal.
- Defenders generally wore numbers between 2 and 6.
- Midfielders most commonly wore numbers 4, 6, 7, 8, 10 and 11 (11 and 7 were typically used for the left and right wings, respectively).
- Strikers wore 9 and 10, and less commonly 7, 8 and 11.
- When substitutions were introduced to the game in the 1965, the substitute typically took the number 12; when a second substitute was allowed, they wore 14. Players were not compelled to wear the number 13 if they were superstitious.
Argentina defied conventions by numbering their squads for the 1978 and 1982 World Cups alphabetically, resulting in outfield players (not goalkeepers) wearing the number 1 shirt. More recently tournament regulations have stated number 1 must be issued to a goalkeeper.
The first European football association to introduce this squad numbering system for league football was England, which introduced squad numbers (and names printed above the numbers) for the 1993 English League Cup final between Arsenal and Sheffield Wednesday. It became standard in the FA Premier League the following season, and most European top leagues adopted the system over the next five years. Players may now wear any number (as long as it is unique within their squad) between 1 and 99. In 2003, FC Porto goalkeeper Vítor Baía became the first player to wear 99 in the final of a major European competition.
Hicham Zerouali was allowed to wear the number 0 for Scottish Premier League club Aberdeen F.C. after the fans nicknamed him "Zero".
Players are not generally allowed to change their number during a season, although a player may end up with a new number if he changes clubs mid-season and his new club already has a player wearing the number he wore with his former club. Players may change numbers between seasons - a move from a high number to a number in the range one to eleven may be seen as an indication that the club thinks the player is likely to be a regular starter for the coming season.
The typical numbering given above comes from the days when the 2-3-5 formation was used. With the convention of numbering from the back forwards and from right to left across each line the numbering is:
1. Goalkeeeper 2. Right full back (right back) 3. Left full back (left back) 4. Right half back (right half) 5. Centre half back (centre half) 6. Left half back (left half) 7. Outside right (right winger) 8. Inside right 9. Centre Forward 10. Inside left 11. Outside left (left winger)
Early evolutions of formations involved moving specific positions, e.g. moving the centre half back to become a defender rather than a half back. Their numbers went with them, hence central defenders wearing number 5. You can still see the effects of this system in operation. For example, in friendly and championship qualifying matches England, when playing the 4-4-2 formation, general number their players (using the standard right to left system of listing football teams) 4 defenders - 2,5,6,3; 4 midfielders - 7,4,8,11; 2 forwards - 9,10. Similarly the Swedish national team number their players:
1. Goalkeeeper 2. Right back 3. Right centre back 4. Left cenre back 5. Left back 6. Defensive midfield 7. Right midfield 8. Centre midfield 9. Left midfield 10. Striker 11. Striker
Shirts of special significance
Over the years certain shirt numbers have developed a significance for a football club or national team. This is usually because it was the number of a particularly great player, and it is considered an honour to wear the same shirt that that player wore. (This is a different approach to the practice of retiring numbers.)American football
A rigid system of assignment of jersey numbers was initiated in American football's NFL in 1973; other levels of the game (including NCAA college football) apply no such restrictions except on the offensive and defensive lines in order to identify eligible receivers. Numbers are always worn on the front and back of a player's jersey, and some leagues mandate the use of so-called "TV numbers" on the sleeve or shoulder. Many uniforms also feature numbers either on the front, back, or sides of the helmet.
- Numbers 1 to 19 are worn by quarterbacks, kickers, and punters.
- *Wide receivers are now allowed to wear numbers between 10 and 19 if they so choose, even if there's an 80-89 number available.
Rugby codes
- ''See main articles: Rugby union positions and Rugby league positions.
Cricket
Cricket introduced player numbering for the Cricket World Cup in 1999, where the captains wore the number 1 jersey and the rest of the squad was numbered between 2 and 14. The rules have since been relaxed to allow any player to wear a number between 1 and 99 in one-day cricket and other short forms of the game.
In test cricket, a player making his debut is given a number along with his test cap. The number is in the order a player makes his test debut. If two or more players make their debut in the same match, they are given numbers alphabetically based on surname. For example, Thomas Armitage is Test player #1 for England. He made his debut in the very first Test Match, against Australia, on March 15, 1877. Sajid Mahmood is the most recent debutante for England, making his debut on May 11, 2006 against Sri Lanka. He is Test player #633 for England. This number can be found on a player's Test uniform, but it is usually in small type on the front, rather than displayed prominently on his back.
Basketball
American basketball leagues at all levels traditionally use single and double digits between 0 and 5 (i.e. 0, 00, 1-5, 10-15, 20-25, 30-35, 40-45, and 50-55), and many high school and college level leagues mandate that only these numbers be used. This eases non-verbal communication between referees and the official scorer. The National Basketball Association has always allowed other numbers between 0 and 99, but numbers outside the traditional ranges are somewhat unusual. Customarily, especially at high school and lower levels, uniform numbers are higher on phyisically larger uniforms, so centers and power forwards, typically the tallest players on their teams, tend to wear higher uniform numbers, but this is by no means an infalliable rule. Players in FIBA-sanctioned contests, including the Olympic Games wear numbers between 4 and 15, inclusive.
Other sports
Other sports which feature players with numbered shirts, but where the number that may be worn is not relevant to the player's position and role are:
At one time, a baseball player's number was specifically related to his place in the batting lineup. The regular starting eight wore numbers 1 through 8, while the backup catcher wore number 9. Starting pitchers generally took numbers 10, 11, 12, and 14, (avoiding the superstitious #13, although some pitchers tried it), while reserve pitchers and position players took the remaining numbers, 15 through 26. Even to this day, low numbers are generally associated with being an everyday player, and many players try to get one, no matter what it is. This is also due to the fact that in Spring Training, minor league players unlikely to make the roster are usually given very high numbers, and many players feel that the higher the number, the less likely you are to make the team after Spring Training. Other players have become attached to a specific number, for whatever reason, and try to acquire it as they go from club to club, sometimes needing to "bribe" the number's current owner on his new team.
Retired numbers
Retiring a player's number is an award bestowed on a successful player, usually after the player has left the team or quit the game. It honors a player who has meant so much to his team that he has "given it the shirt off his back." Their club or franchise will retire the shirt number that the player wore during their time there, meaning no other player is permitted to use that number in the future.
It is also a common practice for teams to take certain numbers out of circulation without formally retiring them. However, it is generally understood in these cases that these numbers will not be worn again.
Although the practice originated in, and is still mostly restricted to US sports, some football (soccer) clubs have started doing this as squad numbers have become common. A.S. Roma, A.C. Milan, Napoli, Manchester City and Olympique Lyonnais have all recently retired shirt numbers. International teams Argentina and Cameroon attempted to retire the numbers of Diego Maradona and Marc-Vivien Foé respectively but were prevented from doing so by FIFA.
Jackie Robinson, the first African American player in Major League Baseball, had his number retired for every franchise (although those players who were wearing the number at the time were permitted to retain it for the duration of their careers — as of the 2006 season, Mariano Rivera is the only remaining active player wearing the number). In 1999 Wayne Gretzky's number 99 was likewise retired by the National Hockey League on his retirement from the game.
See also:
- Retired Numbers in Football
- List of Major League Baseball retired numbers
- List of the National Hockey League retired numbers
External links
- [English football's experiments with numbering]
- [Article in The Guardian about the number 1 goalkeeper jersey]
- [Overcompetitive.com - tongue-in-cheek look at the traditions behind numbers 1 to 11 in football]
- [Baseball Hall of Fame, with uniform numbers]
- [Retired numbers for NFL franchises]
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