White shorts continue to impact womens performance and participation

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Soccer Football - UEFA Womens Euro 2025 - Group C - Poland v Denmark - Stadion Allmend, Lucerne, Switzerland - July 12, 2025 Denmark players pose for a team group photo before the match REUTERS/Stephane Mahe

ZURICH - Professional womens soccer teams have increasingly moved away from white shorts to address concerns over period anxiety, but studies have found the issue continues to impact on performance and on discouraging young girls from participating in sport.

Alex Krumer, a professor in sports economics at Molde University College in Norway, presented his 2024 peer-reviewed study on the performance effects of wearing white shorts to an audience at the University of St. Gallen last week, coinciding with the Womens European Championships in Switzerland.

Krumers research, based on data from World Cups and European Championships between 2002 and 2023, found that womens teams wearing white shorts averaged 1.27 points per game compared to 1.57 points for teams in dark colours. Mens teams showed no performance drop when wearing white.

Krumer said there was not enough conversation on the issue.

Sports should be a vehicle for gender empowerment, he told Reuters. Its about inclusiveness, because this is an exclusive part in womens soccer, not necessarily for professionals but for the young girls this is important.

Denmark, Norway and Finland are among teams at Euro 2025 wearing white shorts.

My colleague messaged me, Alex, theyre playing games in white shorts. It feels that they really want to piss you off,