Football Kit Rules: What the Laws Actually Require

Most of what a football kit looks like feels like tradition — but a fair amount of it is actually written into Law 4 of the Laws of the Game, the rulebook that governs football worldwide. Worth knowing before you finalize a design, especially if your team plays in any kind of sanctioned league.

The Basics

Law 4 sets out that a full kit is a jersey with sleeves, shorts, socks, shin guards, and footwear — sleeveless jerseys aren't permitted. The whole kit, across jersey and shorts combined, is limited to no more than four colors. Socks have to fully cover shin pads, which matters more than it sounds like once you're picking sock length for a design.

Goalkeepers Are a Separate Case

A goalkeeper's kit has to be a color that's clearly distinguishable from both teams and from the match officials — which is why keeper kits almost always end up as a genuinely different colorway rather than a variation on the team's main kit. At the international level, the number 1 shirt is reserved for a goalkeeper specifically. Keepers are also allowed protective extras field players aren't — padded gloves, headgear, and knee or arm protection, as long as it's soft, lightweight padding rather than anything rigid.

Numbers Have to Be Genuinely Legible

Number size requirements exist so a number is actually readable from the stands or on broadcast, not just present — typically in the 10–12 inch range on the back and 4–6 inches on the front or shorts, depending on the competition. It's a detail that's easy to get wrong on a first design pass if you're sizing numbers by eye instead of to spec.

What This Means for a Custom Order

None of this is restrictive in a way that limits design — most club and school kits stay well inside these rules without trying to. It mostly matters at the sample stage: tell us if your team plays under a specific league's ruleset, and we'll check colorway count, goalkeeper contrast, and number sizing against it before bulk production, not after.

Football & Soccer Kits Get a Quote

Source: Law 4 — The Players' Equipment, The FA (publishing IFAB's Laws of the Game).