Stade de Reims

It's not every day you come across a club that includes both a religious holy site - and champagne - but that's what we have in Stade de Reims. So, let’s #GetTheBadgeIn for one of France's most famous clubs.

Founded in 1931, Stade de Reims rose to become France’s first European footballing giant. In the golden age of the 1950s and early 60s, they dazzled the continent with their thrilling "champagne football", a term not just linked to their style, but also their home. Reims is the commercial heart of the Champagne region, home to famous houses like Veuve Clicquot and Taittinger. It’s where grapes are transformed into sparkling wine, stored deep in chalky caves, and shipped worldwide. 

In the early days, the club’s badge even featured a Champagne bottle, a symbol of their city’s global fame and the fizz of their football. But in 1991, a new French law banned alcohol-related imagery in sports logos. Rather than redesign, the club went without a badge entirely from 1992 to 1999. A team with no crest.

So, at the turn of the century, they had a rethink and a redesign.  

Sitting at the top of the new badge sits a royal crown sitting proudly at the top. This is a direct reference to the city's proud Royal heritage. Reims is known as la cité des sacres — "the city of coronations". For over a thousand years, French kings were crowned at Reims Cathedral, an enormous Gothic masterpiece. Central to the ceremony were the unique and sacred objects inside that gave the ritual its power - and that only Reims could provide.

At the heart of it all was the Holy Ampulla – a small glass vial said to contain chrism (holy oil) brought down from heaven by a dove for the baptism of Clovis I in 496 AD (very handy of it). It has been used in every French royal coronation from 1131 onwards, this relic turned the ceremony into something divine. The presence of the crown on the badge is a nod to this sacred, royal past – Stade de Reims are annotied from heaven. Or by an ambitious dove.

The new badge also includes the inverted arch shape which forms the shield – but this shape is a direct take from the main portal (entrance) of Reims Cathedral. These gothic arches, grand and imposing, welcomed both pilgrims and kings into a space filled with light, sculpture, and soaring history. The arch on the badge is a gateway to success of all types, whether you’re being crowned king or playing in a European Cup final.

During the 1950s and 60s, Reims dominated French football – six league titles, stars like Just Fontaine and Raymond Kopa, and two European Cup finals against the mighty Real Madrid. Their thrilling attacking football turned heads and won hearts, at home and abroad.

Then came the fall. Relegation, decline, and bankruptcy in 1992. But like the cathedral itself – damaged in World War I and rebuilt – Reims rose again. Back in Ligue 1, and even returning to European competition in 2020, the club continues to build.

In 2025, they reached the Coupe de France final for the first time in nearly half a century. But bizarrely in the same season they crashed out of the league and will spend mext season in the second tier.

However, much like that Cathedral- a rebuild is underway and it won't be long before Reims is fizzing once more.