French rugby fans blanche at multi-coloured shirt

Efforts by Stade Français, the Paris rugby club, to soften the sport's macho image may finally have strayed off-side.

Fans have accepted the fact that their club song is Gloria Gaynor's feminist anthem, "I Will Survive". They swallowed the decision to change the team colour to pink three years ago.

But they have been traumatised by the club's new "third" shirt, which carries rows of Andy Warhol-style images of the face of a 13th-century French queen, Blanche de Castille, in varying shades of pink, yellow, green, blue and red.

The shirt, with fetching denim-look sides and sleeves, made its debut this month against Montauban. Although the club's other shirts are decorated with flowers, and all have pink on them, the new version has created a verbal ruck in French rugby chat-rooms.

One fan said: "If it wasn't so expensive I'd buy loads just to throw away. It makes me feel nauseous." Another said: "Who's smoking what at Stade Francais? And where can I get some?" A contributor on the British site, rugbyforum.com said: "Are they purposely trying to make every kit gayer as each season passes by?" Another asked: "Are they designed to hypnotise the opposition when they go to tackle them or something?"

Jean-Pierre Bacon, the vice-president of the Stade Français supporters' club, said: "I am against this shirt. The fans don't know what our colours are any more. All the other clubs have two simple, distinct colours. This is just too much." Some Paris fans have greeted the €75 (£58) "Warhol" shirt with enthusiasm. "It's great that we are still poking fun at the macho image of rugby," said one contributor on the French chat-site, rugbyrama.fr

Max Guazzini, the owner of Stade Français, one of the most successful clubs in Europe, said: "We wanted a female face. Blanche de Castille was chosen because she was the mother of Saint Louis, King of France, and it was the students of the Lycée Saint Louis who founded this club."

Pink became the club colour in 2005 as part of a marketing drive by M. Guazzini to encourage more people – and especially more families – to watch rugby. It has been a phenomenal success. Sales increased by 20 per cent in the first year that the pink shirt was introduced and continue to rocket. Stade Français sold 95,000 shirts last season.

Although the "Warhol" multi-coloured shirts were not flying off the shelves at the Stade Français shop in Paris this week, the sales assistant said interest was increasing slowly. "At first everyone thought it was awful, but now they see the funny side," she said. "We've had lots of demand for the kids' size, which is coming out in November."

Cheerleaders and music, fireworks at night matches, and bells to signal the end of each half have been introduced since M. Guazzini took over the club in 1992, when it was languishing in the third division of the French League. Under his leadership, the club progressed quickly into the first division and won the French championship in 1998, 2000, 2003, 2004 and 2007.

M. Guazzini made his fortune with the popular French radio station, NRJ. He used his showbiz contacts to secure appearances from Madonna and Naomi Campbell, both official club godmothers. The club has also enjoyed huge success with its calendar, launched in 2001. Dieux du Stade (Gods of the Stadium) has artistic black and white nude shots of the players and has certainly proved wildly popular with women and the gay community.

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