Jess Battison
The Aston Villa women’s captain has explained why the players wanted to wear the ‘wet look’ shirts.
Yesterday (1 October) saw the opening matches of the Women’s Super League (WSL) with the team facing Manchester United at Villa Park.
As Aston Villa stepped out onto the pitch, football fans saw the women's side in the new kit for the first time.
There’s been backlash over the team’s new shirt design this season, on both the men’s and women’s sides.
Advert
Pundit Jacqui Oatley claimed the side ‘absolutely hated it’ and the women’s team has reportedly expressed ‘dread’ at the idea of wearing it yesterday.
Designed by British sports brand Castore, the new shirts are meant to retain sweat throughout matches, which gives the kit its ‘wet look’ appearance.
This ‘clingy’ fabric has understandably left some of the female footballers feeling a little, well, exposed.
And to make matters even worse, this same design has been used for all the team’s kit, so they’ll have to wear it whether they're at home or away.
Advert
After the match yesterday (where they were dramatically defeated 2-1), Villa captain Rachel Corsie told The Mirror the players decided to wear the shirts for their WSL opener.
The 34-year-old said: “We wanted to wear the home shirt. It’s first game of the season so you want to be in your home kit."
When questioned if the club are working towards resolving the backlash moving forwards, she added: “It is being dealt with, yeah. The club have been really supportive.
"Obviously there has been a lot of talk about that this week but when you get here and it’s the start of the season everyone is buzzing it’s under way now."
Advert
Criticising the new kit, Oatley told Newsbeat ahead of the match: “Normally they'd absolutely relish those games and look forward to them. But they're actually dreading it because they're really conscious about how they're going to look in this wet, clingy kit - for obvious reasons.”
Having explained how concerned players were, she added: "You can imagine, as a female athlete, you have plenty enough to think about just being the best you can be on the football field without thinking about getting sweaty and your kit clinging to you.”
In her pre-match press conference, manager Carla Ward said: “I think we have similar concerns as to what the men have.
"It was highlighted early in the pre-season from the men's side and backed up by the women. But as far as I am concerned, it's over to the club and Castore to deal with it, my focus has to be the weekend and making sure the players are focused on that.”
LADbible has contacted Aston Villa for comment.