More Than A Shirt: How Joey D’Urso’s Book Reveals the Stories Behind Football Shirts

A football shirt can look like a remarkably simple thing. A few colours, a badge, a sponsor, perhaps a distinctive collar or pattern. For supporters, though, a shirt can represent far more than what a team wears on a Saturday afternoon.

It can recall a particular era, a favourite player, a historic match or a childhood memory. It can represent a city, a community or a national identity. And, as journalist and author Joey D’Urso explores in his fascinating book More Than A Shirt: How Football Shirts Explain Global Politics, Money and Power, it can also tell us something about the wider world.

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Who Is Joey D’Urso?

Joey D’Urso is a journalist whose work sits at an interesting intersection between football, politics, data and investigative reporting. He is currently a senior data journalist for The Times and Sunday Times, having previously worked as an investigations writer for The Athletic and reported on politics for BBC News. He has also received recognition within sports journalism, including a Football Journalist of the Year nomination from the Football Supporters’ Association and two British Journalism Awards nominations in the sports journalism category.

That background helps explain the approach taken in More Than A Shirt. This isn't simply a book about classic kits or a nostalgic look at football fashion.

Instead, D’Urso asks a much bigger question: what can football shirts tell us about the world around us?

The answer, as the book demonstrates, is quite a lot.

What Is More Than A Shirt About?

Published by Seven Dials, More Than A Shirt examines 22 football shirts and uses them as starting points for stories about global politics, money, business, history and culture. The book travels from Birmingham to Belgrade, Medellín and Mumbai, showing how apparently familiar pieces of football clothing can be connected to much larger international stories.

One of the book's strengths is its simple premise.

Most football fans already look at shirts closely. We notice the colours. We remember famous sponsors. We debate whether a new kit is better than an old one. We hunt for retro shirts from a favourite era.

D’Urso takes that familiar interest and looks underneath it.

Why did a particular company appear on a shirt? What does an ownership group represent? Why do certain national colours carry such powerful historical associations? What does the arrival of major international investment tell us about football itself?

Suddenly, the shirt becomes a window into something much bigger.

Football Shirts, Sponsorship and Big Money

Shirt sponsorship is one of the clearest examples of how football has changed.

Early sponsorship deals were often relatively straightforward commercial arrangements. A local company could put its name on a team's shirt and gain exposure among supporters in its area.

As football became increasingly global, however, the value of that space grew enormously.

A famous club shirt is no longer seen only by supporters inside a stadium. It can appear on television, social media, websites, newspapers and in photographs viewed by millions of people around the world.

D’Urso explores how that makes football shirts particularly valuable pieces of advertising real estate – and why modern sponsorship can involve much more than simply selling a product. His discussions include major global brands, state-linked organisations and the relationship between football, reputation and international influence.

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When Football Becomes Geopolitical

Perhaps the most intriguing aspect of the book is its exploration of geopolitics through football shirts.

Football is an international language. A shirt worn by one of the world's biggest clubs can be seen by supporters thousands of miles from the country in which that club is based.

That creates an extraordinary opportunity for companies, organisations and governments seeking international visibility.

D’Urso examines subjects including state ownership, sponsorship, soft power and what has become known as sportswashing. Recent discussions around the book have highlighted examples involving Gulf states, international companies and the ways in which football can provide a route to global visibility and association with hugely popular sporting institutions.

The important point is that football shirts do not exist in isolation.

The organisation whose name appears across the chest, the ownership behind a club and the history represented by its colours can all form part of a much larger story.

The Stories Hidden in Famous Football Shirts

One of the most appealing ideas in More Than A Shirt is that supporters don't necessarily need to be experts in international relations to appreciate these stories.

Take a shirt from a particular era and you might see a familiar design.

D’Urso asks you to look again.

The sponsor might provide a clue about the changing economy. The club's ownership might reveal something about international investment. The colours might connect to national history. A partnership might reflect changing commercial relationships between countries.

The book therefore turns something familiar into a starting point for discovery.

It also helps explain why football shirts have become such important pieces of football culture. They are not simply sportswear. They can become visual records of particular moments in time.

Why Football Fans May Enjoy This Book

You don't need to be a political expert to enjoy More Than A Shirt.

If you collect retro football shirts, enjoy football history or simply find yourself wondering why certain sponsors, owners and designs appear on modern kits, there is plenty here to explore.

It is also an interesting choice for anyone who enjoys football books that go beyond match reports, player biographies and tactical analysis.

D’Urso's central idea gives the book a different perspective: use the football shirt as the starting point, then follow the story wherever it leads.

That can take you into economics, international relations, advertising, migration, business, history and popular culture.

Football Shirts as Pieces of History

For many supporters, nostalgia is an important part of collecting football shirts.

A particular design can immediately take you back to a season, a tournament or a favourite generation of players. But More Than A Shirt suggests another way of looking at that nostalgia.

A shirt can be a historical document.

The sponsor tells you something about the commercial world at the time. The design can reflect changing tastes. The club's circumstances can reveal economic pressures or new investment. International influences can appear in places you might not expect.

This is particularly interesting when looking at older football shirts. What initially seems like a purely retro design can provide clues about the period in which it was worn.

That makes football shirt culture about much more than fashion.

A Football Book With A Wider Story To Tell

The idea behind More Than A Shirt is deceptively simple, but it opens up a surprisingly wide subject.

Joey D’Urso uses 22 football shirts to investigate some of the forces that have shaped modern football and the wider world around it. The book's journey covers politics, business, geopolitics, sponsorship, identity and culture, while retaining the football shirt as its central thread.

For anyone interested in the relationship between football and society, that makes it particularly appealing.

And perhaps that is the best way to understand the title.

A football shirt really is more than a shirt.

It can be a memory, a piece of design, a symbol of identity, a commercial billboard and, sometimes, a surprisingly useful way of understanding global politics and power.

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Follow Joey D’Urso

If you'd like to keep up with Joey D’Urso's football writing, journalism and thoughts on the stories behind the beautiful game, you can follow him on:

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/joey.durso/
Substack: https://substack.com/@joeydurso
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@joeydursofootball
X: https://x.com/josephmdurso