Barcelona have been ordered by UEFA to pull last season’s orange third kit back out of the wardrobe for Wednesday’s Champions League fixture at the Parc des Princes. All three of their current Nike kits were ruled out by UEFA’s equipment officials and the host broadcaster on colour-clash grounds against Paris Saint-Germain’s dark navy home strip.
The club’s planned choice for the trip to Paris was the new light blue third kit. UEFA judged it too close to PSG’s own blue. The 2026-27 blaugrana home shirt and the purple away kit, which carries a Kobe Bryant logo, were rejected on the same principle.
That left the Nike Total 90 orange shirt from 2025-26, a design inspired by early-2000s football fashion. The strip had been retained as a registered backup for the current campaign precisely so Barcelona had something orange on file if a dark-coloured opponent eliminated the rest.
Article 9 and the kit-clash rule
The intervention falls under Article 9 of UEFA’s Equipment Regulations, which requires “a clear contrast between each team’s first-choice and second-choice outfield player attires” and allows the governing body to make a club “combine elements from more than one of its approved outfield and/or goalkeeper kits.” In practice that is what has happened to Barcelona, only not with elements from this season’s wardrobe.
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Six points each going into matchday three
Kick-off is at 9pm local time. Both clubs sit on six points from two Champions League league-phase matches, and both have been scoring freely: PSG have 10 goals in two games, Barcelona nine. PSG arrive on the back of a 4-2 Champions League win over Manchester City, Hansi Flick’s Barcelona on the back of a 5-2 La Liga victory at Real Betis on 17 October.
Dembélé back at the Parc des Princes against his old club
The Parisian line-up carries two reunions. Luis Enrique spent three seasons as Barcelona’s head coach before taking the PSG job, and Ousmane Dembélé spent six years at the Camp Nou before his 2023 move to Paris. The France forward has scored and assisted freely for PSG this season, including in the 3-1 win over Strasbourg in Ligue 1 before this fixture.
Neither Luis Enrique nor Flick confirmed a starting XI before matchday.
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