WHAT IS THE MCSI INDEX?
The Manchester City Shirts International Index
The Manchester City Shirts International Index, known as the MCSI, is a proprietary rating system created by ManCityShirts.com to assess, compare and rank Manchester City shirts across the club’s history.
Developed for one of the world’s most complete Manchester City shirt collections, the MCSI provides a consistent framework for evaluating each shirt based on its history, rarity, collectability, authenticity and importance within the wider collection.
Every Manchester City shirt tells a story. Some are remembered for league titles, cup finals and unforgettable goals. Others are prized because they are exceptionally rare, beautifully designed, or difficult to find in original condition. The MCSI brings these factors together into one structured score.
Why the MCSI Was Created
Manchester City have worn hundreds of different shirts across different eras, competitions and manufacturers.
Some shirts are instantly iconic, such as those connected with major trophies, derby victories or defining moments in the club’s history. Others may be less famous to casual supporters but are hugely important to collectors because of their rarity, unusual design, limited production or role in completing a particular season.
The MCSI was created to bring clarity to that world.
Rather than simply saying a shirt is “rare” or “important”, the MCSI uses a consistent scoring method to explain why one shirt may be more significant, more collectable or more valuable than another.
It allows visitors to compare shirts from different decades using the same framework, whether that is a modern Premier League title-winning shirt, a 1990s cult classic, a goalkeeper shirt, a cup final shirt, or a modern official reissue.
What Does the MCSI Measure?
Each shirt is assessed across six core components.
1. Historical Significance – 25%
This measures how important the shirt is within Manchester City history.A shirt will score highly if it is connected with major honours, landmark seasons, famous matches, iconic players or unforgettable moments.Examples may include title-winning seasons, cup finals, European campaigns, derby victories or shirts worn during major turning points in the club’s story.
2. Rarity – 20%
This measures how difficult the shirt is to find today.Rarity is influenced by production numbers, age, surviving examples, market availability and how often the shirt appears for sale.An original shirt from the 1960s or 1970s may score very differently from a modern replica, even if both represent the same design.
3. Collector Demand – 20%
This measures how desirable the shirt is among Manchester City collectors and football shirt enthusiasts.Demand can be driven by nostalgia, iconic players, famous goals, attractive design, sponsor appeal, manufacturer popularity or wider interest in a particular era.Some shirts are not especially rare, but remain highly desirable because almost every City collector wants one.
4. Authenticity – 15%
This is one of the most important parts of the MCSI.Not every shirt in the collection is the same type of item. Some are original shirts manufactured during the season in which they were worn. Others are official club reissues, modern replicas, player issue shirts or match-worn examples.Two shirts can look almost identical in a photograph but have completely different rarity, collectability and value.For that reason, every shirt is clearly identified using one of the following classifications:
OPS – Original Period Shirt Manufactured during the original season or era in which the shirt was used.
OCR – Official Club Reissue A later reproduction officially produced or licensed by Manchester City.
MR – Modern Replica A modern reproduction produced outside the original manufacturing period.
PI – Player Issue A shirt prepared to professional player specification.
MW – Match Worn A shirt confirmed to have been worn by a player during a match.This classification helps visitors understand exactly what they are looking at.
5. Visual Appeal – 10%
Some shirts simply look better than others.This score reflects the overall design, colours, collar style, sponsor integration, manufacturer details, badge placement and visual impact of the shirt.While this category is more subjective than others, visual appeal plays a major role in collector interest and long-term popularity.
6. Collection Importance – 10%
This category is unique to ManCityShirts.com.It measures how important a shirt is within the context of the wider collection.A shirt may score highly because it completes a season, represents a rare variation, fills an important historical gap, or helps tell the full story of Manchester City’s shirt evolution.This is especially important because the collection is built season by season, with each page aiming to document all known major shirts from that year.
How the MCSI Score Works
Each shirt is scored out of 100 across the six categories. These scores are then weighted to create the final MCSI score.
Historical Significance 25%
Rarity 20%
Collector Demand 20%
Authenticity 15%
Visual Appeal 10%
Collection Importance10%
The result is a single MCSI score that allows each shirt to be compared consistently across the full collection.
Understanding the Score
As a general guide:
90–100: Exceptional
Among the most important and desirable Manchester City shirts in the collection.
80–89: Elite
Highly collectable shirts with strong historical, visual or rarity appeal.
70–79: Highly Collectable
Important shirts with clear collector interest and relevance.
60–69: Collectable
Good collection pieces, often more common, modern or less historically significant.
Below 60: Specialist Interest
Usually modern replicas, less significant variants, or shirts with narrower collector appeal.
Original Shirts vs Modern Replicas
One of the most important principles of the MCSI is transparency.
Many classic Manchester City shirts have been reproduced in later years by the club, official retailers or modern replica manufacturers. These shirts can be excellent display pieces and are often much more affordable, but they are not the same as original period shirts.
An original shirt manufactured during the season will usually score higher for rarity, authenticity and market value than a modern reissue of the same design.This does not make a replica unimportant. Replicas can still play a valuable role in showing the full visual history of Manchester City shirts, especially where original examples are extremely rare or almost impossible to obtain.
However, the MCSI makes the distinction clear.
The MCSI Is Not Just About Value
The MCSI is not designed purely as a price guide.A shirt’s market value is important, but value alone does not tell the full story.Some shirts are historically significant but not especially rare. Some are visually striking but connected to less successful seasons. Others may be extremely rare yet less familiar to the average supporter.
The MCSI brings these different elements together to provide a broader view of each shirt’s overall importance.Where estimated values are shown on the website, they should be viewed as collector market guidance rather than formal valuations.
Why It Matters
Football shirts are more than fabric.They are part of the identity of a club, a city and a generation of supporters. They remind us of players, matches, trophies, disappointments, comebacks and unforgettable moments.
For Manchester City supporters, shirts can tell the story of everything from Maine Road memories to Premier League dominance, from cult heroes to global superstars, from old manufacturers and forgotten sponsors to modern title-winning designs.
The MCSI exists to preserve that history in a structured and consistent way.
A Season-by-Season Archive
ManCityShirts.com is not simply a gallery of individual shirts.The collection is organised season by season, with each page showing the shirts associated with that campaign, including home, away, third, goalkeeper, cup, European, player issue, original and replica examples where available.This allows visitors to see how Manchester City’s identity evolved over time, not just through results and players, but through the shirts worn along the way.
Developed by ManCityShirts.com
The Manchester City Shirts International Index has been developed exclusively by ManCityShirts.com as part of its mission to document one of the most complete Manchester City shirt collections ever assembled.
It is intended to become a clear, consistent and accessible benchmark for Manchester City shirt collecting.
Every shirt has a score.
Every score has a reason.
And every shirt has a story.