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Football

28th Sep 2021

Why Inter Milan had to remove snake from away kit for Champions League tie

Callum Boyle

Another day, another issue with a kit

Yes, you really are reading another article about a side with an issue related to their kit. This time it’s Italian side Inter Milan who have had to make alterations to their strip.

For those eagle-eyed readers, you will have noticed that there is a certain feature of the away kit missing in their Champions League game away to Shakhtar Donetsk.

The most notable of these changes is the removal of the ‘snake’ which can be seen wrapped round the kit.

The snake, also known as the ‘Biscione’, is an iconic emblem to Inter Milan but according to several reports, UEFA have asked Inter to remove the emblem from their kit as it goes against the body’s regulations.

In a series of rules, UEFA states that: “The choice of pattern is unrestricted with the following exceptions (to be assessed at the sole discretion of the UEFA administration):

“The pattern must be non-pictorial, e.g. it must not contain any images, illustrations or any other symbols (any pattern that does not satisfy this requirement will be considered as a decorative element);

“The pattern must not allow a reasonable person to identify a manufacturer or sponsor relevant to the equipment (any pattern than does not satisfy this requirement will be considered a trademark).”

It seems that this may have been a late decision as whilst there are no snakes to be seen on the kit, there are marks where it looks like the Nerazzurri have been forced to make a late amendment and peel off the snake.

Inter have also seemingly been told to remove part of their sponsor, with it now reading as ‘$INTER Fan Token’ without the ‘By Socios.com’.

After losing their first group game against Real Madrid, Inter are hoping to return to winning ways with their trip to Ukraine but, at the time of writing, find themselves unable to break the deadlock with the score goalless as it stands.

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