January 25 – Iconic English club Leeds United, pushing for a return to the Premier League, have got themselves into hot water over a new club crest unveiled ahead of their centenary in 2019.
The Championship side, one of the great sleeping giants of English football, gave their fans a taste of the new design this week saying it had taken six months of research during which more than 10,000 people were consulted.
But the cartoon-style badge has led to a social media uproar with 70,000 people signing an online petition calling for it to be scrapped or changed.
The crest depicts the torso of a man giving the ‘Leeds Salute’, a gesture where a fist is placed against the heart. “In the past year we have worked very hard as a club to re-engage fans and the wider community across Leeds,” Leeds managing director Angus Kinnear said in a statement.
“Once we heard that there was a desire for change to help herald a new era for club, it became of primary importance that the new crest clearly reflected who we are.”
But those organising the petition were distinctly unimpressed. “The design is appalling. It makes a mockery of Leeds United and the club’s history. It is alienating the fans. It is has to go.”
And the Leeds United Supporters’ Trust said they were not consulted by the club during the designing process.
“The Supporters’ Trust were not consulted, however we were shown the design on the evening of the 23rd January during the Supporters Advisory Board meeting,” the Trust said in a statement. “Due to the number of enquiries the Trust has received and the reaction we have witnessed online, we will be releasing a survey to accurately measure the opinions of our members which we will then pass on to the club.”
Although not in any way designed to be a political statement, critics not aware of the special nature of the ‘Leeds salute’ have branded the crest as right wing and as a result of the chorus of disapproval, Leeds have now agreed to take another look.
“We need to reopen the consultation process,” Kinnear told local radio. “Because the direction is so distinctive and breaks with a lot of conventions, that consultation process hasn’t gone deep enough.”
And in a further club statement, Leeds said they “appreciate the need to extend the consultation” and “will release more details in the process next week”.
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