By Mohamed Yossry
(Reuters) – A colour-blindness awareness association has criticised the choice of football kits chosen for the World Cup match between Cameroon and Switzerland on Thursday.
The British-based Color Blind Awareness society said the combination of Switzerland’s red kit with Cameroon’s green strip would have created issues for some viewers who would not have been able to distinguish between the teams, as in both cases the two colors are seen in a color closer to black.
FIFA regulations state that color-blind people must be taken into account when choosing shirt colors for each match, “if available”.
“We have worked with FIFA since the last World Cup to help it establish regulations on shirt colours,” Kathryn Albany-Ward, the society’s chief executive, told Reuters.
“FIFA recognizes that red versus green will be traumatic for people with color blindness and that other colors interfere with it,” she added.
Color Blind Awareness cooperated with UEFA during the Euro 2016 semi-final game between Wales and Portugal, which contributed to the wearing of alternative shirts to avoid a problem for the color blind community
Reuters was not able to obtain comment from FIFA
(Writing by Shady Amir)