Why do the Netherlands wear orange? Dutch ‘Oranje’ tradition explained

Football is a colourful business, with teams donning specific shades for home and away matches. The colours used by teams often become shorthand nicknames, so you end up with The Red Devils, Los Blancos or Les Bleus.

Very often in international football, the colour of a team’s jersey tends to reflect their national flag. England’s flag is white with a red cross, for example, so their home kit is predominantly white with hints of red, while their away jerseys are usually red. Brazil’s kits are famously inspired by the yellow, blue and green of their flag, while Mexico play in green with red and white.

However, this isn’t always the case and one notable example is the Netherlands, who play in a vibrant orange colour, despite their flag featuring red, white and blue. GOAL takes a look at why that is the case.

Why do the Netherlands wear orange?

Orange is the colour of the Dutch royal family – the House of Orange-Nassau – and has thus been considered the national colour of the region for hundreds of years.

The Netherlands national football team is not the only Dutch team that wears orange kits, with the tradition followed in hockey, rugby and other codes too. The football team’s nickname is the Oranje and they have also been described as Clockwork Orange in sports media reports.

Dutch football fans are famous for wearing their bright orange colours to support the team, creating a sea of orange in the stands and in the streets, and they are sometimes referred to as The Orange Legion.

What does the Dutch flag look like?

The national flag of the Netherlands is a horizontal tricolour featuring the colours red, white and blue.

Red is the top bar, white is in the middle and blue is at the bottom. There is symbolism in the colours that are used, with red meaning bravery and white denoting peace and honesty, while blue is said to mean truth and justice.

The colours of the national flag have occasionally been reflected in Netherlands away kits.