1988/89 · Home

Hummel kept the previous season’s design and changed one detail that pins down the date: in 1987/88 FNAC sat on a cloth strip sewn across the chest, while in 1988/89 the letters were applied straight onto the hoops. V neck with flaps, the brand’s chevrons running down the sleeves, the hummel logo and the SCP lion in raised flock.

It was the season of Jorge Gonçalves’ “lion’s claws”, the moustached president who brought in Carlos Manuel from Benfica, Rodolfo Rodríguez, Ricardo Rocha and Silas. Uruguayan coach Pedro Rocha did not last long and Manuel José took over the bench; Sporting knocked Ajax out of the UEFA Cup, 4-2 in Alvalade and 2-1 in Amsterdam, and finished fourth as Benfica won the title. In May 1989 the board collapsed for lack of quorum.

Here at Hoopster, this is the shirt of a Sporting in turmoil, with the hoops holding together what the boardroom could not.