Information and History of Football Snoods
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Football snoods have become extremely popular in the last couple of years. You can buy them in a variety of colors and fabrics. Many retail sites even allow you to buy snoods with your club's logos or national team flag flag embroidered on the front of it.
In England they became very popular during the 2009/10 Premier League football season when a number of professional stars (mainly Arsenal and Manchester City players) started wearing them in training and in football matches on live TV.
Players such as Mario Balotelli, Samir Nasri and Chamakh were seen wearing football tube-necks through Christmas and during training. In mainland Europe, players in the Seria A and Spanish leagues also won snoods such as Buffon and Cassilas (both goal keepers).
Football snoods attracted a lot of attention in the media as they became a contentious talking point among players and managers (in addition to the pundits and commentators). High profile managers such as Sir Alex Ferguson lashed out against footballers wearing snoods (while real men do not wear snoods) while other managers had a go at players wearing them. Arsene Wenger was one of the rare managers to defend his players wearing the tube neck scarves arguing that his medical staff said it provided a number of advantages.
The main advantage of wearing them is that it improves players all round performances. Heating up the air before it reaches the lungs means that players use up less energy to keep themselves warm. The warmer air also helps with blood circulation and thermo-regulation during the Winter months.
Unfortunately, they attracted a lot of negative attention by the football authorities and on July 1st 2011 snoods were banned from football. The International FA made snoods illegal under Law 3 about football players clothing and accessories. The injured danger is that it can cause harm to a player if someone pulls his snood on his neck (the same reason why earring are banned from most sports games).
In any case, the attention that these items gathered in the press has created a long term market for them by players and supporters. While snoods were pretty much unheard of beforehand, they have now gained a lot of popularity in both men's fashion and football. There are a number of websites (including eBay and Amazon) where you can buy them from as little as £ 3 per item. These also contain toggles which allow you to tighten them around your neck for different conditions and temperatures.