The final that changed Real Madrid's shirt forever

On May 27, 1981, 41 years ago, Real Madrid's European Cup final against Liverpool led to a significant change to the club's kit, and also to the sponsorship agreements between football clubs and sportswear brands.

The game that evening, which was also played in Paris, saw the Spanish team abandon their all-white kit and, for the first time, wore an Adidas kit with three purple stripes on the sleeves, the sides of the shorts, and on the back of the shorts.

In addition to going against all superstitious thinking of launching a new kit for a match of such importance, the decision broke a 79-year-old tradition, and all in exchange for 17 million pesetas (just over 102,000 euros).

The presentation of the new shirt and kit was made at the Intercontinental Hotel in Paris on the eve of the match.

However, in the final at the Parc des Princes, Real Madrid's new shirts did not bear the German brand's logo. Furthermore, Liverpool's players wore a white patch concealing their supplier's logo, the English company Umbro, on both the shirt and the shorts.

"It was surreal," match winner Alan Kennedy told MARCA. "It was a UEFA ruls and the players had to tape up the brand's logo.

"There was an hour to go before the final and we were walking around with scissors and tape covering each other's shirts.

"That incident made us even stronger. [Legendary Liverpool coach Bob] Paisley only told us one thing: 'Forget about this and focus on the final'."

A change in football's relationship with kit suppliers

Horst Dassler, also recognised as the father of sports sponsorship, had anticipated the potential growth that sportswear companies cold see - as evidenced by the fact that most top footballers wore Adidas boots.

And for that reason, according to Simon Shakeshaft of Museum of Jerseys, he persuaded UEFA officials that Liverpool could not advertise their brand of clothing on shirts and shorts, any more than Real Madrid could, on the pretext of a television restriction preventing advertising on playing apparel.

In fact, Real Madrid's playing shirts featured the purple stripes for the first time, but patches of the same white fabric had been sewn on beforehand to hide Adidas' characteristic three stripes.

That in itself was strange, considering that all the photos of Nottingham Forest, European champions two years earlier, showed the German brand's logo.