By Tom Parsons
May 29 – Everton fans caused a twitter storm over the club’s proposed new club badege with 20,000 people signing a petition against the change. The club moved quickly to apologise and reverse the decision.
The Merseyside team had decided to change the design of the club’s historic crest to something officials said would be more suitable in the modern era and would be cleaner and more dynamic. The new design include the club’s Latin motto “Nil Satis, Nisi Optimum” (nothing but the best is good enough) as well as a pair of wreaths that had been part of the iconic badge.
An overwhelmingly negative public response from fans to the new crest forced the club to apologise. The club has now asked supporters to help them with the design of a new emblem for the 2014/15 season. However, the offending crest that caused the fan outburst will still be used during the 2013/14 season due to time constraints to change it back to the original badge with Everton’s kit manufactures Nike.
Robert Elstone, the club’s CEO, said: “Clearly the weekend’s response has meant that we have reviewed how we went about the whole of the re-design process and whilst many objectives were achieved, we recognised we missed the key part out.
“We want to put this right. Whilst the time-constraints of kit suppliers in particular present challenges, which inevitably means the version released on Saturday will be in operation for the 2013/14 season, we are determined to give our fans a greater say in how we represent the Club on our jerseys, at Goodison Park and across media around the world.
“In advance of the 2014/15 campaign, we are turning to you to help us shape and refine the badge we’ll adopt in the future. Evertonians from all sections of the fan-base will be pulled together in a fully transparent way. “
Everton are not the first club to be hit with a fan backlash over a changed club crest this season.. Cardiff City fans have taken to the streets to protest against new owner Vincent Tan’s decision to make the team wear red rather than blue home shirts for the first time since 1910. This included a change in the colour of the badge and the placing of a red dragon prominently in place of the traditional Cardiff City bluebird.
Tan has stated the club will not be changing back to the traditional bluebird. Cardiff supporters aren’t giving up their protest and on the first home game of next season, their first in the Premier League, are organising another march through Cardiff and ending up at the Fred Keenor (legendary player) outside the Cardiff City Stadium.
In 2002 Arsenal rebranded their famous cannon crest as they had been unable to copyright their old badge. This gave them a stronger merchandise proposition as well as bringing a modern feel to a club trying to establish themselves in Europe.
Traditionalists were against the move and the Arsenal Independent Supporters’ Association claimed that “the club had ignored much of Arsenal’s history and tradition with such a radical modern design, and that fans had not been properly consulted on the issue”.
Leeds and Fulham also went through alterations to their clubs logos in the late 90s and early 00s. Fulham introduced a new crest in 2001 after it was revealed only 14% of fans recognised the previous one. It also the club to gain complete control over its identity. The previous club badge was not owned by Fulham FC itself, but carried the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham crest, presenting problems in the area of trademarking. Any sales of shirts could have entitled The Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham a share in the revenue.
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