A bear facing right instead of left as it reaches for a tree. Four red stripes made thicker. Smoothed out edges and three colours instead of six.

Your initial reaction when seeing Atletico Madrid’s present badge side by side with their previous one might be to ask: “Who cares?”. The crests are not substantially different and the design the club unveiled in 2016 is simply a modern reworking of the previous one.

Advertisement

Yet, 68,894 Atletico supporters answered that question in emphatic fashion last month, when they voted to return to their old badge after a consultation with their club. From July 2024, Atleti will reinstate the old crest on all shirts, licensed products and third-party media. It means this season’s kits will be the last with the current modernised badge.

It is a significant victory for Atletico fans, many of whom have felt marginalised for some time. Some supporters boycotted products with the new badge, Atletico players past and present came out in defence of the old design and, at times, a fractured atmosphere developed at their stadium.

This is why the reversal matters to the Atletico faithful and why the debate goes beyond a simple design change.

Atletico are not the first club to have reversed a change to their badge after experiencing fan backlash. Leeds United withdrew plans for a pared-down crest after it was widely mocked on social media for its nondescript illustration of the “Leeds salute” in 2018. Everton were also forced to apologise to their fans after replacing their longstanding badge with a simpler version in 2013 in which the distinctive image of Prince Rupert’s Tower was reworked, while two laurel wreaths and the club’s Latin motto were removed. They switched to their present one from the 2014-15 season after holding a supporter vote.

Atletico fans were just as taken aback by their club’s rebrand when it was announced in December 2016. It took place at an event to mark the naming of Atleti’s new stadium as the Wanda Metropolitano (it was renamed again last year after they agreed on a partnership with the real-estate firm Civitas) ahead of their move from the crumbling but much-loved Vicente Calderon. Designed by Barcelona-based studio Vasava, the new crest came as a complete surprise to fans.

The badge proved to be powerful for all the wrong reasons, sparking an instant response on social media. The man behind the new design, Vasava’s creative director Bruno Selles, was forced to defend his creation.

Advertisement

“The key to the change is searching for a way of simplifying things and synthesis,” Selles said in an interview with the Spanish news agency EFE after the announcement. “It’s a badge that hasn’t changed since 1947 and the team has kept growing… It wasn’t logical for the brand not to progress, that it wasn’t synchronised with its current challenges.”

Selles said it was “understandable” that fans felt strongly about the new badge and explained the idea had been to make it “more flexible” and “easier to reproduce”. He claimed “a German fan might not have understood” the drawing of a bear and a strawberry tree which featured in the top left-hand corner. Supporters are naturally resistant to changes such as these, so the reaction was no surprise.

The image of the bear and the strawberry tree is more important than you might think. It mirrors the Madrid coat of arms and dates back to the 13th century. A statue depicting that scene stands in the Puerta del Sol, one of the main squares in the Spanish capital. It has featured on Atletico’s badge since 1917 and is a key way of differentiating the club given Atleti were formed as a Madrid subsidiary of the Bilbao-based Athletic Club in 1903.

“This is not a small thing — this is like a country’s flag,” says Jose Luis Sanchez Ayuso, the president of Atletico fan group Senales de Humo (Smoke Signals). “It’s no small thing changing the colours of a flag… In Spain, each time there’s a change of flag, it’s because there’s been a change of regime.”

Some Atletico fans refused to buy merchandise with the new badge and instead rushed to purchase a special kit released by the club for the 2021-22 season which featured their previous crest, celebrating their 75th anniversary playing under their present name. Those unhappy with Atletico’s rebrand call the new design a “logo” because of how it is seen as a corporate symbol.

Advertisement

“It’s difficult to explain why there’s so much revolt. Why fight for a badge?,” says Paulo Futre, the legendary former Atletico and Portugal winger who has the club’s traditional crest tattooed on his left arm. “Because it’s a feeling which is very difficult to explain. That badge has stuck for decades. It’s stuck for grandparents, their children, their grandchildren. For them, they couldn’t see another badge.”

But the redesign was also controversial because of the way it was announced. For many, the lack of consultation was the latest in a long line of decisions that have left fans feeling disenfranchised. “It’s not that the new badge is a bad badge — simply that it’s a badge that wasn’t born with the fanbase,” says Alberto Garcia, head of communications for the International Union of Atletico Madrid Supporters’ Groups. “The fanbase didn’t want it. It didn’t ask for it.”

The sense of disenfranchisement can be traced back to the moment the club stopped being owned by its supporters in 1992. Former president Jesus Gil and his successor Enrique Cerezo were found to have acquired the majority of Atletico’s shares in that takeover without having paid anything. The Spanish courts released their verdict of misappropriation of funds in 2003, but they were acquitted a year later as the Supreme Court ruled no action could be taken due to the statute of limitations.

The final straw came when Atletico unveiled last season’s home kit, which featured wavey red and white stripes and provoked almost as much backlash as the redesigned crest. Atletico set up a social commission made up of 10 supporters in response, but it was only at the end of the season the club considered debating the badge. In the meantime, Frente Atletico, a controversial far-right fans’ group, called for fans to fall silent during matches — although this was met with opposition by some other supporters.

Atletico finally called a non-binding vote at the end of last month to determine whether a change of crest should be considered. Club captain Koke and former players, including Fernando Torres and Kiko Narvaez, published social media posts which seemed to show support for the old design. That led to the consultation in which more than 88 per cent of members who voted chose to return to the traditional crest.

🔴⚪ Tras el anuncio del Atlético de Madrid de que someterá a referéndum entre sus socios si mantener el logo actual o volver al escudo antiguo, el capitán Koke ha dejado bien clara su postura en este tema pic.twitter.com/b5nc62Rd3l

— Diario AS (@diarioas) June 23, 2023

“The important thing was regaining our right to be heard with a voice and a vote,” says Eduardo Fernandez, the president of the International Union of Atletico Madrid Supporters’ Groups. “That was the essential thing and I’m certain it has signalled a turning point.”

This could prove to be an influential moment for Spanish football, too. Last week, a Real Valladolid director said the club would “study” the possibility of holding a consultation on their badge change after a fan petition.

Advertisement

According to Emilio Abejon, general secretary of the Federation of Shareholders and Members of Spanish Football (FASFE), Atletico’s case shows the power supporters hold despite an ever-commercialised game.

“Clubs continue to be very important social and cultural entities linked to an identity which requires symbols because human beings identify with things symbolically,” he says.

So, who cares about a bear, a tree, a few stripes and some colours? Quite a lot of people, it turns out.

(Top photos: Getty Images)

ncG1vNJzZmismJqutbTLnquim16YvK57k29ucmxgbXxzfJFsZmlvX2Z%2BcK3TpZytoZOkeq6tw6ugnWWTp7K0wIybmJ2flWLDsMDEaA%3D%3D