New Badge Reflects Boro's Long Heritage
MIDDLESBROUGH Football Club is going back to its roots with the launch of a new badge featuring a heraldic shield that honours the club's long heritage.
The new badge, which is launched today, recognises the fact that Middlesbrough is one of the oldest football clubs in the world, having been formed in 1876.
It replaces a roundel-shaped badge that had been in existence since the club's rebirth following liquidation in 1986.
Chairman Steve Gibson is delighted with the new design, explaining: "I've been pressing for the change of badge for some time. The 1986 badge suggested our history was far shorter than it really was.
"We should be proud of our history and that the club is one of the oldest not just in England but in the entire world. Our history before 1986 might not always have been covered in glory but it is our history all the same and we should recognise that.
"The new badge will ensure that everyone in the football world knows just how far back Middlesbrough Football Club goes. We should all be proud of that."
The club have confirmed that it will take some time for the new 1876 design to completely replace the 1986 badge, even around the Riverside Stadium. Much work is required to change the badges on the front of the stadium, on windows, mirrors, bars, kiosks and stationery.
While the old badge is removed, Chief Executive Keith Lamb stresses that the rebirth of MFC 21 years ago will not be erased from the club's psyche.
"We are launching the new badge to better reflect the club's great heritage and future ambitions," he explains. "We launched our old badge in 1986 on the back of the liquidation saga when the new club was keen to distance itself from the old Boro and some of the less than reputable people involved in it.
"It was a fresh, new start with new people in charge and a new vision. It was only right then that we had a new badge that drew a line under what had gone before as the club sank towards bankruptcy.
"We understand that many of our fans only know the post-1986 Boro and we are certainly not erasing that from our history. We are proud of our rise from the brink of extinction and all of us - club and fans - will remain grateful to the people of the post-1986 era for pulling the football club through that difficult period.
"But 1986 is now more than two decades ago so we feel it is time to move on from that and to reflect our true, far greater heritage that stretches back as long ago as 1876."
Like the Chairman, Lamb was taken aback by clubs Boro faced in UEFA Cup competition who saw the badge and believed Middlesbrough were among European football's new kids on the block.
He says: "During our European travels we met clubs that had nothing like our tradition, having been perhaps formed in the 1920s. They should have been looking up to us, knowing our distinguished heritage but they actually thought we had been formed as a new club just 20 years earlier.
"It would be a disservice to our long history and the players, staff and fans who played a part in that history not to officially recognise our tradition.
"The name of Middlesbrough Football Club is one of the oldest around and it is only right that we should be openly proud of that fact.
"We are no longer a club throwing off the shackles of liquidation, but one proud to have reached five cup finals and an established Premier League team over the past decade."
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I thought that badge was just a rumor?
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