Irish Soccer Club Launches Bob Marley Jersey Paying Tribute To Late Singer’s Final Outdoor Concert

An Irish soccer club has unveiled a new jersey with an image of the iconic reggae musician Bob Marley.

Bohemian Football Club, in collaboration with the Bob Marley family and Bravado, Universal Music Group’s global merchandise division, today announced the release of the club’s 2022 away jersey.

Bohemian F.C. is the oldest soccer club in Ireland and the club’s 121-year-old stadium, Dalymount Park, hosted Marley’s last ever outdoor concert, on July 6, 1980.

The jersey, available at www.marley-bohemianfc.com, pays tribute to the ‘An Afternoon in the Park’ gig, with an embroidered hem tag of the original concert ticket on the lower front of the shirt. The front, rear neck and sleeve trims have red, yellow and green features.

The club will use 10% of the profits from sales of the shirt to buy musical instruments and soccer equipment for people in Ireland’s 40 accommodation centers for asylum seekers. This will be done in partnership with Movement of Asylum Seekers in Ireland (MASI).

Bohemians’ chief operating officer, Daniel Lambert, told me the shirt was a tribute to the history of soccer and music at Dalymount. The ground has hosted musicians including Meatloaf, Ice Cube and the Red Hot Chili Peppers, as well as soccer royalty like Pele, Zinedine Zidane and George Best.

“The Marley concert at Dalymount is one of Ireland’s truly special musical events, his only ever Irish show and, sadly, his last ever outdoor one,” Lambert said.

“Bob Marley also played on the pitch. There’s this famous story that he was playing on the pitch (before the concert) and our groundsman at the time, he was a very old-school man, told Bob to get off the pitch.

“The gig is part of the folklore of the area and the football club.”

The jersey has been years in the making. In 2019, the club, from the Phibsborough neighborhood on the northside of Dublin, was forced to pull the design after learning it did not have the correct licensing rights.

The club sold out pre-sales, generated global publicity and had endorsement from the late singer’s son before being forced to redesign the jersey.

“I always think it was like winning the lotto and losing the ticket,” Lambert said.

This time, though, Bohemians have permission and Lambert has heard the Marley family are fans of the design.

“From what I can ascertain there was a will from their side and a push to make it happen,” he said.

A big soccer fan, Bob Marley said “football is freedom” and his family have supported soccer projects. His daughter Cedella, for example, helped fundraise for Jamaica’s women’s national team to play at the 2019 Women’s World Cup.

The shirts, made by family-owned Irish sports manufacturer O’Neills, are expected to be a hit. One has already been sent to Jamaican sprinter and soccer fan Usain Bolt. Last year, a shirt released by Ajax in collaboration with the Marley family sold out in one day.

“I think we’ll smash any Irish record for sure. I know it will be our best-selling shirt,” Lambert said.

“It’s a really nice piece of history and I think it’s going to be pretty big.”

The League of Ireland Premier Division club, which has been fan-owned since 1890, has previously used the front of its shirt to deliver a “Refugees Welcome” message. Last year, Bohemian teamed up with Grammy-nominated band Fontaines D.C. to highlight homelessness in Ireland. The initiative has raised nearly €20,000 ($22,600) for Focus Ireland, a national body that works on tackling homelessness.

In December, the club joined with other organisations to appeal for donations to buy Christmas gifts for children living in Ireland’s Direct Provision system for processing asylum seekers. Total donations were about €100,000, with all 2,500 children receiving a gift.

Bohemian relies on support from volunteers and members and Lambert believes the club has a duty to help the community through initiatives like the Bob Marley-inspired jersey.

“I think it’s so important that the club has to reflect the issues that people face, whether that’s around migration and migrants … or issues closer to home like homelessness,” he said.

“The biggest asylum center in Ireland has about 250 kids in it and they don’t really have anything at all. So if we can go with football shirts and footballs and instruments … I think that will be a really good thing and hopefully we can help inspire some future footballers and musicians.”