La Franja Naranja: Puebla’s new away kit carries a controversial past

Puebla has brought back its historic logo after a couple years of having an alternate badge that sparked some controversy with the fan base. However, La Franja’s away kit has now caused some uproar because of the controversial past of the orange stripe across the jersey.

Puebla has been through a number of different owners in recent history and back in 1995, the franchise was bought out by the Abed brothers, Julian and Jose. The powerful businessmen clearly did not seem to value the history of the club and decided to change the team’s logo.

There was already uneasiness within the fan base and the results in the initial season with Julian and Jose Abed in charge gave Camoteros’ fans even more of a reason to be upset. Puebla finished dead last in the 95-96 Liga MX season with just 28 points from 34 games.

In the Invierno 1996 season, the short tournament format began in Mexico and the Abed brothers lack of interest in Puebla’s history stayed consistent and reached new levels. The owners decided to change the traditional blue stripe on the jersey to orange and this caused even more uproar within the fan base and even protests.

However, despite the unconventional uniforms, Los Camoteros had a very successful season finishing fourth with 31 points. La Franja eliminated Toluca in the quarterfinals and were eventually knocked out by Necaxa in the semifinals of the competition.

The fans also enjoyed the heroics of Spanish forward Carlos Munoz, who finished as the top scorer in the league with 15 goals. Munoz is still the only player in Puebla’s history to finish as the top scorer in the Liga MX and it was done with “La Franja Naranja”.

Unfortunately, that was the only fruitful season the Camoteros’ fans enjoyed with the infamous orange stripe and untraditional badge that would last for three more tournaments. Puebla finished 13^th two tournaments in a row in the Verano 1997 and the Invierno 1997. The last season under the Abed bothers’ reign, the Verano 1998 was even worse as the team won just four games and finished in 15^th place.

Finally, in the Invierno 1998 season, Julian and Jose Abed decided to sell Puebla F.C. to Francisco Bernat Cid, who returned the traditional badge and blue stripe to La Franja. However, the Abed’s still made a negative impact on the team by dismantling the team and thus Puebla finished dead last in the Invierno 1998 with just nine points.

The orange stripe represents the unconformity of the Puebla’ fan base with the ownership in the late 90’s and the inclusion of it in the new away kit certainly raises some questions.