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Manchester United will play in a historic strip next
season - in honour of a player who helped them win their first
major trophy.
Stars including Wayne Rooney and Cristiano Ronaldo will wear the
shirts, which feature a large white V-shape sash down the
front.
The kit is based upon a 100-year-old design supplied by one of
the club's own players, Billy Meredith, before the 1909 FA Cup
Final.
Meredith, nicknamed the "Welsh Wizard", is regarded as
football's first superstar and guided United to victory in the Cup
and the league title the next year.
A century on, United's kit makers Nike have been asked to rework
Meredith's shirt - using high-tech materials rather than
heavyweight cotton and with a white sash on a red shirt instead of
1909's red-on-white.
Meredith, a former Welsh coalminer, earned £4 a week at United -
then three times a miner's wage but just £298 a week in today's
money. As a sideline he ran a sports shop and became the club's kit
supplier. For the Wembley final with Bristol City, both sides had
to change from their usual red shirts.
Meredith quickly arranged for a set of white lace-up shirts with
a red V to be made, and United went on to win 1-0.
Meredith, who also played for Man City, retired from football in
1924 to open a pub and died in 1958.
