When Did Football Clubs First Add Badges to Shirts? The Strange Rise of the Club Crest
A football shirt without a club badge now looks unfinished. The crest is often the first detail supporters notice, yet for much of football’s early history, shirts were usually plain.
Some teams began adding symbols during the 1870s and 1880s, but there was no single date when badges became standard. Early examples included school symbols, town coats of arms, initials and images worn only for major cup matches.
For many British clubs, the badge did not become a permanent part of the shirt until the 1950s, 1960s or even 1970s. In other parts of the world, some teams placed city or club crests on their shirts much earlier.
Were Badges Worn on the First Football Shirts?
Football teams in the late 19th century were mainly identified by their shirt colours, caps and sock patterns. There was little need for a club logo because supporters knew the local sides and football was not yet a worldwide television product.
Badges also had to be sewn onto heavy wool shirts by hand. This added time and cost to clothing that was repeatedly worn, washed and repaired.
Representative teams were among the first to use clear chest badges. England wore the Three Lions during the first official international against Scotland in 1872.
Club football was less consistent. A team could have an official emblem on letters, flags and match programmes without placing it on the playing shirt.
Blackburn Rovers and an Early Shirt Badge
Blackburn Rovers provide one of the earliest British examples.
Records from the club’s founding period in 1875 refer to a Maltese cross being worn on the left side of the shirt. The symbol had links to the schools attended by some of the club’s founders.
It was a simple mark rather than the large shield now worn by Blackburn. By the early 1880s, it had largely vanished from the regular kit.
Blackburn later followed the common British practice of wearing a special badge for FA Cup finals. The town coat of arms was used for these major occasions, but the club played most ordinary matches without any badge until 1974.
A Rare Middlesbrough Shirt From the 1880s
One of the most striking surviving examples comes from Middlesbrough.
A white woollen shirt dating from between 1886 and 1890 carries an embroidered badge marked “M.F.C. ERIMUS”. It also has blue polka-dot cuffs and a buttoned collar, making it look very different from a modern football top.
The word “Erimus” means “we shall be” and comes from the Middlesbrough town motto.
The shirt sold at auction for £16,000 in 2023. It is thought to be one of the oldest surviving shirts linked to a club that later played in the Football League.
Why FA Cup Finals Helped Spread Shirt Badges
In Britain, badges were often saved for FA Cup finals. Reaching the final was a rare event, so clubs produced special shirts carrying a town crest or club symbol.
Arsenal created their first club crest in 1905, but their normal shirts remained plain for decades. Badges were mainly added for important matches, including FA Cup finals, before becoming a permanent part of the kit during the 1960s.
Tottenham Hotspur first wore their famous cockerel on a playing shirt in the 1921 FA Cup final against Wolverhampton Wanderers. Spurs won 1-0, although the wet and muddy conditions reportedly forced them to change into plain shirts during the match.
The cockerel was already linked with Tottenham, but the final helped turn it into one of English football’s best-known shirt symbols.
When Did Liverpool Add the Liver Bird?
Liverpool adopted the Liver bird as a club symbol long before it appeared on the team’s shirts.
It was used on official club material, medals, flags and programmes during the first half of the 20th century. However, the Liver bird did not appear on a Liverpool playing shirt until the 1950 FA Cup final.
A white Liver bird inside a red shield was added to the club’s white final shirt for the match against Arsenal.
Liverpool occasionally used similar shirts during the following years. The badge appeared on the regular home kit during the 1955-56 season, with club historians placing its arrival around November 1955.
Manchester United Waited Until the 1970s
Manchester United are another major club whose regular shirts remained without a permanent badge for a surprisingly long time.
The Manchester coat of arms was used on shirts for some cup finals, but United’s normal red kit was generally plain apart from its collar and other basic details.
The familiar club badge, including the ship and red devil, became a regular feature on the shirt in the early 1970s. Before that, players such as George Best, Bobby Charlton and Denis Law spent much of their United careers wearing shirts without a permanent club crest.
This means many of the most famous photos from United’s 1960s success show a far simpler red shirt than the one sold to supporters today.
Barcelona Used a Badge From the Beginning
The history was different in Spain.
Barcelona’s earliest blue and claret shirts carried the coat of arms of the city. The club used this civic badge from its founding period in 1899 until 1910.
In 1910, Barcelona held a competition to create a separate club crest. The winning design combined the Cross of Saint George, the Catalan flag, the club colours and a football.
Although it has been updated many times, the basic form remains in use. Barcelona therefore had a badge on their playing shirts decades before it became normal for many leading British teams.
Boca Juniors Show Why the Answer Is Complicated
Boca Juniors created their first official crest in 1910, only five years after the Argentine club was formed.
However, it was designed for club letters and documents rather than the playing shirt. A later version added stars to mark league titles, but the badge still did not become a regular part of Boca’s kit.
It appeared for one match in 1977 and was not used continuously on the shirt until 1993.
Boca are a useful example because they had an official badge for more than 80 years before wearing it every week. Creating a club emblem and adding it to the shirt were often two separate events.
Badges Began to Record Success
As shirt badges became common, clubs began using them to show achievements as well as identity.
In 1958, Juventus added a gold star after winning a tenth Italian league championship. Italian football then allowed clubs to add a star for every ten league titles.
Other countries and competitions later created their own systems. Stars now mark everything from domestic championships to European Cups and world titles, although their meaning varies between clubs.
When Did Football Shirt Badges Become Standard?
The earliest club shirt badges date from the 1870s and 1880s, but they were rare and often short-lived.
During the first half of the 20th century, many British clubs used badges only for cup finals and other special matches. Permanent crests became far more common from the 1950s onwards, before becoming standard during the 1960s and 1970s.
The growth of television, replica shirts and named kit makers made the badge more important. It was no longer simply a small stitched symbol for the players. It became the main mark linking the team, supporters and products sold around the world.
So, there is no single club or match that started the custom. Football badges reached shirts slowly, one team at a time, before becoming the central part of a club’s identity that we know today.
