The Calcio Brandemic
Italian football is sick.
I work in marketing by day and write this newsletter by night. This means that I often find myself with my head buried in branding guideline decks, MarketingWeek articles and social media data. I’ve heard the word ‘pivot’ used far too many times in a context that isn’t discussing a team’s midfielders. I’d, whilst not legally accurate, consider myself qualified enough to declare that Italian football (and football in general) is in the midst of a catastrophic wave of a branding disease. I’m labelling it a ‘Brandemic’.
As those who know me and/or follow me on socials know, I am not particularly fond of modernity. I don’t like modern things. I find them uninspiring, boring and lacking in any romance and character. Football is a hotbed for exactly this. Modern football clubs are not just locally run community hubs anymore. They are now more global brands with logos, just as much as those original clubs with historic crests.
Hours could be spent discussing the concerning signs in football, how they’re stripping back anything that gives the game a soul and turning it into a commercial cow being milked over and over again. I won’t do that here, though.
I want to focus on the clubs’ rebranding, but first I need to outline that having to call it a ‘rebrand’ is a huge part of the problem. Football’s commercial growth now positions football clubs, once seen as institutions focused on their connections with the local community, as brands. It pains me to say it, but they are essentially brands. I don’t agree with it, though. I don’t like it.
The point of this week’s newsletter isn’t to moan about the commercialisation of football. No, instead we’re looking at how modern rebrands of football clubs are happening more and more, season to season.
I’m strictly talking about badges, though. I don’t have the energy nor the interest to break down other aspects of a rebrand, and I doubt any of you care.
For the most part, modern Italian football badge redesigns have been unsuccessful. Italy is a country steeped in history and culture. I won’t teach you how to suck eggs, though. You already know this. So, when you reflect on the aesthetic of Italian football, the move away from the historic badges to modern designs feels uncomfortable and feels like we’re losing an edge.
Typically, you’d see a club move to a circular badge. It seems that most clubs, especially those in England, are moving in this direction. We’ve even had Sheffield FC, the reported ‘World’s Oldest Club’, opt for a circular badge, prompting strong hostility from everyone. Back in Italy, Ascoli are the latest team to move to a circular badge.
If we’re starting on a positive note, Ascoli’s rebrand wasn’t bad. The badge is nice given it’s circular, and I find the move to circular, intending to become more commercial in a digital age, a very boring and uninspiring choice. That’s even if one of the club’s older badges was circular, and they’re just returning to that. It’s then nostalgia-jacking for commercial gain. Ascoli’s, though, is good. Historical and cultural nods, tightening of the colours and overall, not a bad effort.
As a marketer, I like Ascoli’s changes. As a calcio fan, more importantly, though, I do not. Ascoli moved away from an oval badge, something those who love Italian football hold close to their hearts. A lot of clubs in Italian football have historically had oval badges, and some still do. Bologna, Milan, Pisa, Bari. The list goes on. The oval badges have somewhat of a romantic aura around them, and I guess that’s steeped in sentimentality, too. My prediction is that more and more clubs will move away from oval badges, just like Ascoli have and just like Juventus did.
Juventus’ new(ish) logo is, by far, one of the worst I’ve seen in the game. It’s horrendous and, quite honestly, an insult to Italian football. The reported inspiration behind the new badge was that they wanted something that kids could easily copy and draw, which, if true, is a terrible justification for tearing up a club’s identity. It was also said that Juventus wanted to bridge the gap between football, fashion and lifestyle, and the new logo coincided with the acquisition of Cristiano Ronaldo. It was a commercial and marketing dream scenario. Whether or not either the logo or the Ronaldo signing was a success is still up for debate.
Rivalling Juventus for one of the worst rebrands in Italian football is Hellas Verona. In an age where clubs want their badge to be easier to translate digitally, I don’t really understand the direction Verona have taken. They’ve used a symbol, the mastiffs, that nods to the Della Scala, the family that ruled Verona from the 13th to the 14th century. It’s a fitting nod to the city’s heritage, but to use it as the entire badge ‘Hellas Verona FC’ planted above it looks terrible and does not achieve what they’re (probably) trying to do. The previous badge was beautiful. It didn’t need to be changed.
It’s not just Juve or Hellas, either. Fiorentina’s move to their new modern rendition of the iconic diamond removes any character or romance the previous one portrayed. Atalanta have moved away from an oval badge, too, opting for a circular version focused entirely on the depiction of the Greek heroine. Inter moved away from the gold in the badge and opted for a whole ‘I M’ tagline thing.
I’m not stupid enough to not know that this is common practice throughout the history of football. There’s not a club (that has existed for a significant amount of time) that has kept the same badge throughout. New badges are prominent throughout Italian history, which is why many often share graphics or old magazine snippets across social media, showing the history of club badges.
Regardless of that, though, there are still good and bad rebrands, and many of the recent badge changes are those of the latter. Juventus, Hellas, Fiorentina, Atalanta. The list continues to grow as clubs chase commercial success in a digital era.
My wish is that the oval badges aren’t eradicated from Italian football. My wish is that clubs would stop chasing commercial and marketing KPIs. My wish is that modern football would just halt. Alas, that won’t be happening anytime soon. So, I need to cling to whatever I can that makes me feel something. Roma’s new(ish) badge is a good start as it’s seemingly going in the opposite direction.
Football was way more attractive during the 80s, 90s and even part of the 00s. Everything looked better. Badges included. I don’t want to be ‘old guy yelling at cloud’, though. But if the cloud were stripped back of all of its character and creative intricacy to help drive commercial success in a digital age, I would yell at it and the people responsible.
When I started the FORZA CALCIO newsletter, it was built around a simple idea: Italian football is full of stories that deserve to be told properly. Not just match reports. Not just transfer rumours. But the history, culture, chaos, and identity that make calcio what it is.
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