I love football jerseys (or shirts as most seem to call them). The older, the rarer, the randomer, the better. A classic jersey is a pure nostalgia hit, an instant teleportation to a beautiful memory or moment of football goodness. I have 10 old Ireland jerseys in my closet and I’m smiling just thinking about them. So, full disclosure, I’m not objective in reviewing a book about football shirts.

Kit and Caboodle is Matt Riley’s love letter to football shirts and football in general. It’s his reflection on the beautiful game told through the prism of football shirts and many fascinating stories that show how football shirts can be, and should be, more than just fabric that exposes how fat we are all getting in middle age.

Riley worked in Thai football for a number of years and is heavily involved in a range of football organisations. His passion for the sport of football shines through on every page. His disdain for the football business is equally apparent with the less pleasant side of football sponsorship and ownership . The book is packed full of interesting anecodotes and stories, most of which were new to me. It touches on a wide range of topics from using football shirts as a means of doing good, to the perils of gambling sponsorship, to Atalanta sending free shirts to every baby botn in Bergamo, to those clubs like St Pauli and Forest Green that look to project a very different ethos and image.

A beautiful colorful book packed with pictures of iconic football shirts, Kit and Caboodle is designed to be savoured as much as to be read. It’s also literally impossible to not at some point put the book down to google how much some of the shirts pictured might cost you. My Maradona themed Napoli jersey should be arriving any day now. I don’t think I can blame the book for the USA ’94 hat I also bought though!

All royalties from the book go to Exeter City Women’s football team. It is being published by Pitch Publishing on August 1st.