Match Jerseys · Issued · Match-Issued · Match-Worn
ISSUED
This type of shirt is part of the club's equipment inventory, but it was never actually handed over to the player for an official match. A simple way to tell it apart from a match-used shirt is the size: the club's equipment staff often prepare these shirts in sizes different from what the player actually wears. They're also different from shirts sold in stores, since they carry club-specific technical details — the fabric, materials, internal tags, and official patches.
MATCH-ISSUED
Sometimes called "dressing room" shirts, these are shirts the club sets aside specifically for a match but that end up not being worn on the field. This happens because equipment staff at professional clubs usually prepare several identical shirts as backups for each official match, and many of them never actually get used. Even though these shirts share the same technical features as a shirt worn in a match — patches, materials, internal labels, etc. — they can't be classified that way. For a shirt to count as "match-issued," its size does need to match the player's actual size. Normally some models of the shirt are not commercialized, especially goalkeepers shirts or last minute sponsors or design-changes.
MATCH-WORN
This term refers to a shirt the player genuinely wore during an official match. It has to match the player's size and usually carries specific patches or labels that differ from the versions sold to the public (this depends on the technical sponsor). If the shirt hasn't been washed, it will typically show dirt, grass, and sweat stains, along with visible signs of wear from the game. Some clubs add a "matchday" or "match-worn" tag to set these apart from shirts that were only prepared but never used. Photo-matching is another key way to verify authenticity: even though shirts look similar to one another, each one is unique based on the exact placement of patches, numbers, and the player's name.
