Why Barcelona will wear its 2025/26 Third kit against PSG? It's due to UEFA's kit clash rules

Barcelona will face PSG in the Champions League tonight and, according to FootyHeadlines, will take to the pitch in a kit from the 2025/26 season. The decision has been forced by UEFA regulations on kit clashes. All three kits supplied by Nike for Barcelona's 2026/27 season create a colour clash with the kit PSG will wear for the match.

Why Barcelona Cannot Wear Its 2026/27 Kits

Barcelona will wear its 2025/26 third kit tonight. The all-orange design draws inspiration from the season in which the club won the Sextete and features Nike's Total 90 design, which the brand brought back last season for some of its biggest clubs. As mentioned, none of the three Nike kits available to Barcelona meets UEFA's requirements on kit clashes when compared with PSG's strip.

The blaugrana home jersey was clearly ruled out because of its red and blue colours, which are also among PSG's traditional club colours. More surprisingly, Barça could not fall back on either the purple away kit, featuring the Kobe Bryant logo, or the light blue third kit, as both were deemed too similar to PSG's strip. The club has therefore turned to last season's third kit, which had been registered as an emergency option for the current campaign precisely in anticipation of this kind of situation.

This is not the first time Barcelona have been forced to wear a kit from the previous season to avoid a clash. The same scenario played out in La Liga during the opening fixtures of the 2025/26 season, when the Blaugrana wore their fluorescent green away kit from 2024/25 because none of their available kits offered alternative shorts or socks to resolve the colour clash.

What UEFA's Kit Clash Regulations Say

Article 9 of the UEFA Equipment Regulations, under the heading Colour choices and combinations, sets out the criteria governing which kits can be worn in a match. "In order to minimise colour clashes, there must be a clear contrast between each team's first-choice and second-choice outfield player attires, to the extent that they could be worn by opposing teams in a match. If one playing attire comprises predominantly dark colours, the other must comprise predominantly light colours. Alternatively, if one of the playing attires is hooped, banded, striped or checked, the other must not contain any of the colours used for those elements."

"Teams must also have at least two goalkeeper kits that provide a clear colour contrast with each other and with the first-choice and second-choice outfield player attires. Finally, a team may be required to combine elements from more than one of its approved outfield and/or goalkeeper kits (shirt, shorts or socks) to ensure a clear visual contrast with the opposing team."