Ahead of their first match of the 2019 AFC Champions League against Daegu FC, Melbourne Victory have unveiled their updated kits for the continental club tournament.

Following the recent releases of similar, and quite frankly, significantly better ACL kits from Sydney FC and Newcastle Jets, the Big V will essentially be using their regular home and away kits for all Asian Champions League matchups.

From the kit enthusiast’s perspective, it's quite a disappointing effort from a club which regards itself as the biggest in Australia. Further to this, one of the very minor changes made to the updated kit has also raised eyebrows for more serious, non-cosmetic reasons.

Aside from the Hyundai A-League logo being replaced by player numbers on the left-chest, the only other alteration to the kit involves Victory’s usual shirt sponsor Metricon being substituted for Chinese online casino company Kashbet (凯时).

However, the articles of AFC’s equipment regulations explicitly prohibit sponsors associated with gambling, though the implications of this article are subject to interpretation thanks to a preceding article which states “the form of Sponsor Advertising is unrestricted”, effectively throwing the whole situation up in the air.

Victory insist they have done a deal with another company Kaishi Entertainment but the two appear to be connected, and the logo and logograms used on the shirt and at the launch are identical to Kashbet, who also sponsor Roma and Ajax. 


Melbourne Victory will look to kickstart their 2019 ACL campaign with a win against Daegu FC, whom they play host to at AAMI Park, kicking off at 7pm on Tuesday, March 5.