Red is NOT the colour of winners

LOLS!

Athletes are superstitious enough as it is! Shame on New Scientist for encouraging that.

http://www.newscientist.com/channel/being-human/mg18625005.300.html

I don't know too much about rugby, but isn't it true to say that in recent times Australia (green and gold) followed by England (white w/red trim) have dominated Rugby? Certainly the All Black Kiwis have been amongst it too.

As for soccer, I do know a few things about that! Man Utd (red) has now gone 2 seasons without a trophy and got crushed 3-0 by the back-to back champions Chelsea (blue). It's true in the past English Football has been dominated by the Big Red 3 however (Arsenal, Man Utd, Liverpool). However the strongest teams in the other top leagues are often a mixture although there are certainly some reds. Bayern Munich (germany) has dominated forever and will continue to in red, however in Scotland the old firm of Rangers (blue) and Celtic (green and white stripes) have won virtually every trophy between them. Italy's top team is the Old Lady of Juventus (black and white stripes) however AC Milan is one of the greats on the game (red) however they consider their famous White away strip to be lucky and have won 4 of their European Cups in it! Also in Italy Inter make up the blue and black striped side of Milan (however it is true that they are the less trophy laden half, the same can be said of the red/blue divide of Man Utd and City in Manchester). Finally in Spain, despite red being the national colour, arguably the strongest of the European leagues is certainly not a sea of red. The great Los Meringues of Real Madrid are known by their brilliant all white strip (incidentally it was a tribute to a great english team of a previous era, and later Leeds, an english team would return the compliment by turning all white in honor of Madrid!). Current spanish top dogs, Barcelona are in the Champions league final in their customary Claret and Blue stripes. Valencia can only get as close to red as their orange wardrobe will allow, while past contenders Deportivo are decked in blue and white stripes! (that pun was worth of an english sports rag!)

The article goes on to describe the performance of Red teams at Euro 2004, a curious argument since that tournament provided one of the great under-dog victories when unfancied Greece (in white and blue) went all the way to the trophy! This and scoring 1-0 for virtually all their fixtures (extra goals don't count for extra points in football silly journo). While on the subject of national teams, lets look at the successful strip colours there! A simple run down of the list yields, Brazil, Czech Republic, Netherlands, USA (holy moly!), Spain, Mexico, France, Portugal, Argentina and England. In that top 10 the colours run, Yellow w/blue, White w/red/blue (this year Orange), Orange, White w/blue/red stripe, Red, Green, Blue, Red, White and Blue stripes, and White w/red (red away strip). Of the 2 red home strips, neither has won a major tournament, and indeed Spain and Portugal are forever reminded of this fact! Only England has won a World Cup (THE premiere sporting trophy) with red a predominant feature in their strip, and then only in their away strip! Italy, amazingly out of the top ten, are all blue this year.

Hope this works out any superstitions you had and will let you play your best in ANU's fabulous Blue and White!

JULIAN