Manchester United and Sunderland have banned their young players from wearing outlandish coloured boots and made them wear traditional black instead.
With superstars such as Cristiano Ronaldo, Lionel Messi and Wayne Rooney used to promote models in every colour of the rainbow, a new study reveals that the humble black boot is in danger of dying out.
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But Sunderland boss Steve Bruce says young players should earn the right to wear coloured boots, and supports the policy adopted by his club's academy directors, Ged McNamee and Kevin Ball, which insists parents buy only black.
Bruce's views are echoed by Sir Alex Ferguson at United, where academy graduates are given black Nike boots with studs and no blades. Middlesbrough have a similar arrangement with adidas and Everton also apply a black boots policy at their academy.
Bruce said: 'It's like sweets in a shop. The brighter the boots, the more kids want them, but let's face it, coloured boots are just a gimmick. They do not make anyone play any better, nor any worse.
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'The view that Ged and Bally have taken, which is spot on, is that you earn the right to wear boots of any colour when you get in the firstteam squad, or earn yourself a sponsorship deal. Then things can change.
'When they come into the academy it is more about being different with the way you play on the pitch, and gaining attention that way, not with what you wear.'
As a no -nonsense defender at Manchester United in the Eighties and Nineties, Bruce would not even have considered wearing the kind of footwear now in vogue.
'Times have changed,' said Bruce, 50. 'Kids want the colourful boots worn by their heroes. But it's a strange world to me. Can you imagine me wearing bright yellow boots coming out of Wallsend, or at Manchester United?'
In a national survey of seven-to-12-year-olds, 74 per cent of young players revealed they wore non-black boots to play football.
White proved to be the most popular non-black colour, taking 24 per cent of the vote, followed by red with 17 per cent, blue and green both with 12 per cent and gold with nine per cent.
This compares to 100 per cent of the same age group in 1996 who said that they wore black football boots.
But Ellis Cashmore, professor of culture, media and sport at Staffordshire University, believes Premier League managers are wasting their time trying to change buying habits.
He said: 'People trying to restore old traditions in football are fighting a losing battle.
'There's every chance that we could be witnessing the death of the black football boot. If children wear black football boots these days they get sneered at. It's nothing vicious but you're probably letting yourself in for some mild abuse.
'Football is now all about entertainment. And as part of entertainment, you need a product to sell and football boots are part of this product.
'People see their favourite player wearing them and rush off to the shops to buy them. David Beckham possibly started this on a major scale after changing to white boots.
'But every time they bring a new boot they have to make it even more distinguishable so we'll possibly see the black boot slip out of existence.
'You used to be able to buy a pair of football boots and wear them until you grew out of them, but this isn't the case any more.'
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