Improbable Soccer

So here at Improbable Soccer we are fond of global surveys. Generally we run through a region or association wholesale, and then move to the next one. But for this particular topic, it’s a little more broad in spectrum. So please bear with us as we do the first of what will, no doubt, be a long running sequence on football crests.

I have long been fascinated by football crests. It is important to note that for a very long time, there were no crests on kits. Chelsea started using a crest in 1960, while Blackburn Rovers did not until 1974. So this is an inexact science at best. While kits change from year to year, the crest is constant (we hope). It’s the best representation a club has while on the pitch. Possibly most important to clubs, it’s the brand that gets plastered on everything from piggy banks to scarves to shot glasses. …which may be why clubs occasionally feel compelled to change them. Still, most clubs have the good sense to keep the same crest for a long period, or just modernize their design.

The two best examples in the Prem of this strategy are London rivals West Ham and Chelsea.

The Evolution of the Chelsea FC Crest

As you can see, Chelsea went from what was essentially a crest for the newsletter to the more modern Lion Regnant in 1953. There it stayed until 1986, when the club went to a design that really should have died with legwarmers and rampant cocaine abuse, though, much like the latter, it lasted long past its welcome (in this case, until 2004). In 2005 the club went back to a cleaner, modernized version of their classic crest, and there they stayed. I like the “new” crest for Chelsea. It’s clean, simple, and is in keeping with their heritage. You can read more about the evolution of the crest in the CFC Wikipedia article - I don’t want to provide an exhaustive history here - just note the design.

Similarly West Ham United went through a modernization in 1997.

Note that the crest is fundamentally the same, though the team colors have been emphasized, and the details cleared up a bit. It’s not quite as busy as the original, and I think that’s a good thing. The original had been around for 92 years prior, and you can’t get rid of that on a whim. THIS is what crest changes should be. It is an update without betraying its heritage.

So, then, what makes a good crest? Well, this is the team insignia, so the following criteria are not always possible, but, in general:

Clean Lines
Club Colors
Founding Date
Club Motto
Club History

I present the two following as good examples of these tenets:

While I believe the Everton crest to be slightly more elegant (watch my fellow Rovers supporters disown me for that one), both embody these tenets. The lines are clean, each evokes the team history (the Red Rose of Lancaster and Prince Rupert’s Tower, respectively), founding dates are present, and the club motto is prominent. While Everton’s is certainly older, and has a timeless elegance, the Blackburn crest is very effective at what it does. It’s a very no-nonsense kind of crest.

On the other hand, we have the modern marketing driven crest. Nowhere is this more apparent than Blackburn’s close neighbors, Bolton Wanderers.

On the left you see Bolton’s original crest. On the right you see a soul sold to Reebok. It is no coincidence this crest came into being when Bolton moved into the Reebok Stadium. It’s an attempt to be young, hip, and fresh, and fails utterly. I’ll give it some props for having incorporated the ribbon of the original, but where’s the Lancaster Rose? They’re a Lancashire club - this thing is taken fairly seriously. You know, large war, changed course of English history, that sort of thing. And it’s tossed aside. Good job fellas. Way to pander to that dollar. I will lay a bet now that it’s changed within the next 15 years. These things have inertia, but it will change, likely to a modernized version of the original ala West Ham or Chelsea.

And that’s it for this lecture. Next time we’re going to delve into some good and bad crests worldwide.

Further Reading:

Best Brands Of The World
UEFA Clubs Since 1955 - essentially every club crest ever in Europe
Albanian Football Logos - Yes Virginia, EVERYTHING has a webpage.