Daily Mail
Leeds badge change is a misstep for a club rebuilding
By Amitai Winehouse For Mailonline 15:26 24 Jan 2018, updated 15:26 24 Jan 2018
Leeds United have unveiled their new badge for the start of 2018-19 season
The new crest is a depiction of a supporter performing the 'Leeds Salute'
Defender Pontus Jansson tweeted in Swedish to say he was shocked by design
New effort seems as though it has been drummed up in a marketing meeting
It took under an hour for 6,000 people to sign a petition calling for it not to be used. Leeds defender Pontus Jansson admitted he was in a 'state of shock'. Ian Harte, featured in the unveiling video, said he was 'not a fan'.
This was probably not the reaction Leeds were looking for when they unveiled their new badge on Wednesday.
Jansson may have been surprised but the board should not have been. This new symbol is a wild misstep.
Leeds have unveiled their new badge for the 2018-19 season, depicting the 'Leeds Salute'
The club's current logo has been in place since the beginning of the 1999-2000 campaign
First — the history behind it. The salute featured on the badge is something Leeds fans have done to identify one another for decades. Spot a scarf on the street? Give the salute. See a pin badge? Give the salute. Travel to an away game and see a fellow fan? Give the salute.
Some will tell you it comes from a fist pump done by Glynn Snodin, who played for the club in the 1980s. But even Leeds fans are unsure of the origin.
The majority of football followers in this country have no idea it exists. Well, they did until Wednesday.
It is not something corporate. Players have generally only adopted it as an expression of rebellion. As someone on social media put it, it's a nod and a wink, 'if you know, you know'.
To have it featured on the badge ruins that.
The salute aside, the other key aspect of the badge is the use of the words Leeds United.
Leeds defender Pontus Jansson admitted he was in a 'state of shock' after seeing design
A petition on change.org to scrap the design has already reached over 15,000 signatures
There has been a suggestion from Elland Road that the use of the script 'LUFC' on the badge means it is difficult to identify the club.
Anyone who knows anything about football would tell you that is simply nonsense. There are no other clubs in the country playing league football with the same initials.
And the LUFC script has been in use since Leeds's most glorious days. Don Revie — superstitious and afraid of birds — switched the badge from the city's owl symbol to the script. It adorned the chest during the club's FA Cup win and first league title.
But even ignoring that, there has always been a tradition of including a proper symbol of either the club or the city in the badge. That could be the Yorkshire rose or the Peacock, after the club's nickname.
The Leeds crest in 1998
The Leeds crest from 1984
The badge bears a striking resemblance to the front cover of Pro Evolution Soccer 2
Leeds have also been at the centre of moments of design genius. In 1974, as they romped to the title, they wore the 'smiley' badge. It's an iconic design that still stands up today.
The salute, on the other hand, seems to have been picked in response to a survey commissioned last year, in which fans were asked for symbols associated with the club.
The resulting badge would be more at home in Pro Evolution Soccer 2 than on the shirt of one of the country's most historic teams.
Design aside, there is a logic behind Leeds changing their badge. The shield has been in use, in the main, for the club's slide down the leagues and, essentially, a period of utter shame.
This new era under owner Andrea Radrizzani has generally been good. The Italian experienced deserved praise for buying back Elland Road. The club sat at the top of the Championship for a good chunk of the early part of this season. Why not symbolise that optimism with a new badge?
The club enter their centenary season next year, with the badge change part of celebrations
Next year is also Leeds's centenary, which makes it an ideal time for the shift.
Surely, though, that is a time for tradition rather than dipping toes into the MLS-style cesspool that this badge has been dragged up from.
This new effort seems as though it has been drummed up in a marketing meeting by people who have no knowledge of the football club beyond that survey.
In an attempt by former owner Massimo Cellino to curry favour with the fanbase, photos were posted on Leeds's social media of him doing the salute with a special guest for a game. Unsurprisingly, given the bizarre fever dream Cellino's Leeds United became, he was alongside former 'Mini Me' Verne Troyer.
After Wednesday's revelation, that is no longer the worst use of the salute by Leeds.
If this badge ever appears on a shirt, it will be a low for a club that seemed on the cusp of a high only a few months ago.
A HISTORY OF LEEDS BADGES
Leeds United's first ever crest
The owl badge
Initials on the shirt (1972-73
Seventies circle design (1973-77)
Iconic circular design (1977-81)
Addition of the peacock (1981-1984)
The Leeds crest from 1984
The Leeds crest from 1998
