Hemel Hempstead brothers swap 'revolting' football shirts for Christmas

Brothers Lewis Simpson-Jones and Daley Jones compete each year to buy each other the most "revolting" football shirts

Two brothers have shared their "quirky" Christmas tradition of buying each other "obscure and revolting" football shirts.

Daley Jones and Lewis Simpson-Jones, from Hemel Hempstead, in Hertfordshire, starting gifting one another "hideous" shirts five years ago.

The pair came up with the idea to make Christmas gifting more interesting than their usual exchanging of vouchers.

Mr Jones said they now compete for who can find the "most awful" shirt.

Mr Jones said he wears the shirts when playing football each week and often has people ask him what he is wearing

"Christmas can get a bit static in terms of present-buying and it can be a bit unimaginative," Mr Simpson-Jones said.

"We are both avid football fans and have a taste for the obscure so we just said shall we get each other a random football shirt.

"We ended up buying each other the most awful-looking shirts and it became a bit of a tradition."

Each year the brothers score each other on three criteria: How obscure the team is, how weird the sponsors are and how "physically grotesque" the shirt is.

The winner receives a free round of drinks.

Mr Jones said his wife was not a fan of the "revolting" prawn shirt

The pair agreed the worst shirt since their tradition began was a shellfish-themed number belonging to Spanish team Loja CD.

Mr Simpson-Jones bought it for his brother as he knew his wife had a distaste for seafood.

"She nearly fainted when he opened it," the 32-year-old said.

"I thought she just didn't like prawns - I didn't realise it was a genuine phobia."

For the most obscure teams, the brothers said they had shirts from leagues in Tibet and Brunei.

The brothers ended up with the same broccoli-themed shirt this year from Spanish team Lorca CF

This year the pair's friend joined the tradition and the three men exchanged shirts and then wore them to a St Albans City FC game.

"We got some rather interesting looks," Mr Jones, who lives in Wing, Buckinghamshire, said.

"This year I got Lewis a disgusting broccoli shirt since he's a vegan but our friend actually bought me the same one."

The brothers said the tradition had brought the fun back into Christmas and had given them a reason to get together socially during the busy festive period.

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