Sporting Clube de Portugal 2011/12 Home Shirt

After a decade, Sporting dressed according to their own statutes again. The SCP initials returned to their rightful place above the crest, a classic collar replaced the modern necklines, and the hoops ran clean from edge to edge once more. Puma, saying goodbye to the bolder designs of previous years, produced the most timeless shirt of its contract. And the season lived up to the elegance, at least in Europe: with Ricardo Sá Pinto taking over mid campaign, Sporting knocked Manchester City and their millions out of the Europa League in the last 16 and only fell in the semi finals, against Bielsa's Athletic, after winning the first leg at Alvalade. It was the Lions' best European run in decades. At home, fourth place felt like too little and the Taça de Portugal final was lost to Académica at the Jamor. A shirt that won nothing and still became a reference: sometimes being right is enough. And this one, for the first time in ten years, was right down to the statutes.

Here at Hoopster this shirt restored the order of the Statutes: the initials back in their place, the classic collar and a European march to the semi-finals. When the lion dresses as the house law demands, Europe takes notice.