Open Letter To Everton

The ´NoToNewEFCBadge´ Twitter Campaign is encouraging Everton fans to write to Everton Football Club in an attempt to bring about a change of mind on the new Everton badge, released this weekend.

All Evertonians who support the @NoToNewEFCBadge Twitter campaign to have the new Everton badge removed are encouraged to forward this letter on to the club and fill in the relevant personal details. The club are required to respond as part of their customer charter.

Dear Sirs,

RE: Complaint under the Everton FC Customer Charter – Customer Relations

Customer No: *******

I am writing to you as a loyal supporter/season ticket holder of many/xx years to express my displeasure and clear objection to the recently introduced, ‘modernised’ Everton FC crest.

As someone who has invested a great deal of time and money in following OUR club through thick and thin over the years, it is fair to say that my feeling is that, together, we are all stakeholders in this magnificent institution – an idea that has historically been endorsed by the club, I should add.

With an Evertonian as Chairman, a man who labels himself merely a ‘custodian’, and with the adoption of “The People’s Club” tag of recent years, we have always been led to believe that Everton FC is one of the last truly ‘inclusive’ football clubs left at the highest level, a club that will always listen to its fans.

You can imagine then my horror when the club recently announced the adoption of this proposed new ‘branding’ – confirmation of a badge that many of us fans have seen around the internet for some weeks now, but which I assumed to be a ‘hoax’.

As an Evertonian, I subscribe absolutely to the notion that our club is ‘different’ and ‘special’. I believe that we are indeed ‘chosen’, and that our history, heritage and past success is something of which we can be immensely proud, something which we should embrace and be proud of – not something that we should snigger at the distant memory of, cower away from or feel the need to reinvent ourselves free of.

Every week Goodison Park and away ends around the country can be found packed full of loyal Evertonians belting out the famous ‘Grand Old Team” anthem, of which the lines “..and if, you know, your history….” are most prominent and passionately delivered. It is something that we identify with, and something that we never, ever want to forget, move on from, or let go.

I am not against change, I am not a fan who is ‘stuck in the past’ and I absolutely acknowledge the need of the club to modernise the badge for various reasons. What I cannot accept however, is the way in which a small group of faceless individuals have torn the heart out of a key part of the identity of our club. Along with our name, club colours and stadium…the club crest is an intrinsic part of who we are and where we have evolved from. I don’t think I need to elaborate too much on specifics when I say that this new crest is simply not befitting of our football club on any level. It is not just the removal of the famous “Nil Satis Nisi Optimum” standard, of which the majority of us are very fond, but more the overall feel. Many have used words such as “cheap”..”tacky”..and suggested that the badge looks as though it could have been designed “by a young child”. I couldn’t disagree with any of these points.

As a fan of “The People’s Club”, the least that I would have expected is an open fans consultation on a decision this important, with various design ‘options’ being offered via the club website – prior to any final decision being taken. As it is, the existing design has been greeted by widespread disapproval, disappointment, upset and worst of all, a feeling of betrayal.

I implore you all; please, listen to the fans. Withdraw this universally hated abomination without delay and allow the Evertonians – all of us, not a faceless chosen few – the opportunity to have an input into a decision which affects everyone associated with the club.

Warmest regards,

Disillusioned Evertonians.

@NoToNewEFCBadge