What's the difference between a match worn shirt and a match issue shirt? It is subtle but essential for collectors

If you’re passionate about football you may have noticed that players no longer swap shirts at half-time. This ritual still exists but has returned to its origins, in the sense that it’s confined to the end of the match. Only after the final whistle, at the end of the sporting battle, do two players meet halfway to exchange shirts after exchanging mutual compliments. A shift in the paradigm mainly due to commercial agreements, since teams now, either on their own or using other platforms, put the shirts worn during the first halves up for auction. These are the so-called match worn shirts, and to facilitate the collection of these garments the practice of carrying out this operation at the end of the first half has developed. That is why even the players who remain on the bench during the first 45' then return to the locker room together with their teammates for the first part of the break. In fact they too must make available to the club the shirts they have worn. And here is where the difference between match worn and match issue arises.

For a few more details we turned to Filippo Delprete, known as Italian Jersey Collector: "Usually, players have three shirts at their disposal: a spare, one for the first half, and one for the second half. They take off the first half shirt and put on the one they’ll wear in the second half. First half shirts now must be left to the club due to partnerships with companies. This doesn’t apply to every match or every team. Second half shirts are usually theirs to keep. They can take them home, gift them to a friend, or throw them to the fans. The third shirt might stay at the club, reused by the kit manager, or sometimes made available to fans. That one isn’t technically match worn but is prepared and differs slightly from a store shirt. There are also shirts where the locker-room version is identical to the store version. Some clubs make no distinction. These locker-room shirts are called match issue."