Another own goal?

Earlier today Leeds United, my home town club and one I’ve had an on-off relationship with over the past four decades revealed their new club crest after consulting 10,000 fans over a 6 month period. As I look at the online petition to halt the appearance of this new badge on their beloved team shirt, scarves, mugs and any other conceivable merchandising products, its obvious emotions are running high – over 49,000 have already signed.

The team at Leeds and their design agency clearly believed that they had approached the project with the best intentions and had canvassed opinion when they thought it mattered. For any other project, such an immersive approach would be admirable. The unfortunate reality for any designer tasked with reinventing a club badge is that people reserve a special, often hysterical, fervour for the icons of their club. If you’ve been carrying a crest tattooed on your arm for the past decade, you’re already badly placed to accept any change, no matter how subtle, no matter how badly needed.

‘Football has changed’ – heard so often it’s another over the moon cliché – yet it’s also a sport that clings to its history unlike any other. Banners and chants call up past victories, celebrate heroes long forgotten except by those collecting their pensions. A club badge that fails to carry some link to this seam of collective memory is already on a slippery slope. Unfortunately in looking to create a marque for the future, the proposed Leeds United crest seems to be so forward facing that it’s completely forgotten to acknowledge any past glories.