New Club Emblem?

[Another Northern Soul]

Designs are copied, our current shield was to give it a look more similar to european teams we were playing against. I do remember a lot of disgruntled fans at the time, but there wasn't the power of social media then.

That's right Nic, I remember the reference being made. Our blue European away jersey was modeled on Lazio at the time too.

i liked that shirt, wasn't too keen on the shorts though or the link with Lazio

[kk white]

Designs are copied, our current shield was to give it a look more similar to european teams we were playing against. I do remember a lot of disgruntled fans at the time, but there wasn't the power of social media then.

That's right Nic, I remember the reference being made. Our blue European away jersey was modeled on Lazio at the time too.

i liked that shirt, wasn't too keen on the shorts though or the link with Lazio

Shirt was a cracker though, my favourite. Unfortunately it disappeared the same as many others over the years. I can't EVER remember throwing out a shirt, yet I can't find most of them...

[Clarke One Nil]

We wore all-white before The Don became manager and he never admitted to the Real Madrid aspect, I think it was a happy combination of things rather than just the RM affection.

I suspect you are right that it was a mixture of causes, but there is reasonable evidence that the Real Madrid motivation was the primary one, particularly given that he was very superstitious.

According to Richard Sutcliffe’s authorised biography, Revie: Revered and Reviled, Leeds played intermittently in white shirts with blue and gold trimmings during 1960/61 when Revie was team captain, and when Revie took over as manager he insisted during the summer of 1961 to permanently change to a plain all-white strip in the style of Real Madrid.

It says that Jack Charlton later suggested that the switch in colours was a practical one because the players could pick each other out better against the background of the crowd, then it quotes the then Leeds President and Revie’s son Duncan as both insisting that he did it to copy Madrid.

It quotes the Earl of Harewood, Leeds President since 1961 and a close confidant of Revie during his time as manager, as saying: “Don was a huge admirer of Real Madrid and he did definitely change the team colours to show his desire to make Leeds a success.”

It quotes Revie’s son Duncan as saying: “I am told the players just looked at him at first as if to say, ‘You must be mad’. But he just replied, ‘We are going to be the best in the world, just like Real Madrid’. It was an amazing thing to say about a club near the bottom of Division Two, but it showed how determined Dad was to be a success.”

[Another Northern Soul]

Aye

[Clarke One Nil]

Do you think the Madrid story was made up later and it stuck? That's possible, I suppose.

[Another Northern Soul]

Do you think the Madrid story was made up later and it stuck? That's possible, I suppose.

No not at all mate, sorry if it looked like I was doubting it, that wasn't the intention

I do think the RM link might have been overstated as the years progress, at the time or soon later I believe Don Revie commented that all-white was a practical and financial choice plus it was easier for the players to see each other on the pitch.

[Another Northern Soul]

Just to add that I'm just reading about Maj Frank Buckley who instructed the club to change kit colours too when he started around 1949. But not to all-white obviously

[Nic]

Designs are copied, our current shield was to give it a look more similar to european teams we were playing against. I do remember a lot of disgruntled fans at the time, but there wasn't the power of social media then.

That's right Nic, I remember the reference being made. Our blue European away jersey was modeled on Lazio at the time too.

I have one of those blue shirts though surely that was as we both the same shirt sponsor.Didn't bother with a yellow version. The rose wasn't part of the original design but added afterwards to appease fans.

[Clarke One Nil]

Do you think the Madrid story was made up later and it stuck? That's possible, I suppose.

No not at all mate, sorry if it looked like I was doubting it, that wasn't the intention

I do think the RM link might have been overstated as the years progress, at the time or soon later I believe Don Revie commented that all-white was a practical and financial choice plus it was easier for the players to see each other on the pitch.

That’s fine ANS, I would have had no problem if you were doubting it. I agree that anything like that would have got overstated over time, particularly as the club came closer to achieving that seemingly crazy aim, and cost and visibility sound like credible reasons.

However overstated it became, the Madrid aim does seem to have been there from fairly early on. There’s another quote later in Sutcliffe’s biography of Revie, from striker Alan Peacock, who joined during the 1964 promotion season:

“It was all down to Don who had this ability to send you out feeling ten feet tall. It might be a team meeting or just in the dressing room, but he always seemed to slip a mention of Real Madrid in to emphasise how far he thought Leeds could go. Don had changed the kit to all-white and he never let us forget the standards he wanted to reach. It rubbed off on the team.”

Sutcliffe’s biography also covers Don’s many superstitions. Two of those, if true, lend credibility to the story about the colour change: it says he changed the club nickname from the Peacocks, and the badge from the owl, because he had a superstitious fear of birds.

My favourite quote was about the scene in The Damned United film that showed the players walking to Derby’s ground after the team coach stopped nearby. The book says that Jack Charlton said, after watching the film, that if that had happened and Leeds had won, then Don would have got the players to do it every week!

[Nic]

watching the international break there is a familiar logo


After leeds fans moaned and the club backtracked - did the designers then flog an altered version to the UEFA??