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My current goal is to cover as many East of England clubs as possible, including those playing against @IpswichTown (the Fulham post is a little late coming —like that equaliser). However, a news story this morning sent me on a complete tangent – far, far away from East Anglia, and to the Far East instead. Specifically, to the Southern Chinese province of Guangdong and Guangzhou FC (@GZEvergrandeFC), who were just expelled from the league. There's a fascinating story behind this, so let’s #GetTheBadgeIn and see what’s happening in the world of Chinese football. Firstly, let's establish some geography—Guangzhou, the capital of Guangdong (formerly Canton), is situated above Hong Kong. Guangdong is one of the provinces around the Pearl River Estuary with a combined population of 86 million—20 million more than the UK in just one urban area. So, keep that in mind next time someone in Beccles refuses planning permission to convert a garage into an AirBnB one day and moans about Britian falling behind the next. You can’t be both powerful and provincial. Back to Guangzhou: they are China's most successful team, winning multiple Super League titles and two AFC Champions League titles against teams from Australia, Japan, Korea, Saudi Arabia, etc. They were founded in 1954, at a time in China when anything that wasn’t farming, welding, or chanting phrases from Mao’s Little Red Book was deemed as truly suspicious behaviour. Donning some shorts and kicking a pig’s bladder around a field while talking of your love for European players would have certainly got you an entry in the local CCP’s bad books. Since their formation however, they've undergone various ownership changes. Similar to English teams historically linked to local businesses (e.g., Leiston FC from Garrett and Sons, Braintree FC from Crittall Windows, Barnet FC from Alston Works), Chinese teams have also been associated with companies. However, creating teams in the 1950s was challenging due to the absence of independent companies under Communism, and names like “645th Agricultural Commune Rovers FC” aren’t catchy. So, the connection is very different (and in a way, more depressingly modern). As capitalism took off in the 1980s, large Chinese companies, often supported by state funds or monopolies, began acquiring teams as personal assets.   In 1993, Guangzhou was acquired by the Apollo Group, a large Chinese conglomerate, and renamed 'Guangzhou Apollo.' By 2010, Evergrande Real Estate Group had taken over, rebranding the team as Guangzhou Evergrande. Evergrande invested heavily; The club recruited top Chinese players, bringing some back from European clubs like PSV Eindhoven, and signed Brazilian Muriqui for a record £2.5m. These and subsequent signings propelled them up the leagues, and they debuted in the AFC Champions League in 2012. In 2012 they also opened the world’s largest residential football academy – a factory farm for Chinese football talent. As unsavoury as this sounds, they use the same strategy to produce Olympians – and they’re pretty good at that. So, watch this space… The badge's red symbolises luck in Chinese culture, while the gold represents wealth—which I think we can agree are features of most successful teams. The tiger's head, reflecting the South China Tiger, an endangered native species, adds extra cultural symbolism to the badge. Despite my initial fears when I first saw it, it actually has some deep-rooted symbolism and is one the locals can rightly be proud of. So, what’s gone wrong? Money. Evergrande is in trouble. It borrowed and spent big in real estate during the late 2010s when the property prices were going through the roof. All those mega cities and towns you see with high rise flats as far as the eye can see – that was Evergrande. It was the Chinese miracle. The modern wonder of the world. Nothing could stop the rise of China. And then the market went bust. And took Evergrande (and potentially all of China), down with it. In 2022 Evergrande owed $300bn. A quick Google tells me that is the same as the GDP of Finland. You really need to screw your accounts up to have to turn around and say ‘Er, sorry boss, I might have forgotten to carry the 1 – and now we owe a Finland’. Evergrande’s founder, Hui Ka Yan, formerly China’s richest man, is now under investigation and plans for their new stadium – Guangzhou Football Park – a planned 100,000 seater stadium with mind blowing architecture (Google it – omg) has been cancelled. The Club has this year fallen behind with its own debt repayments and has been unable to pay salaries. As a result the Chinese FA have booted them out of the league. The South Chinese Tigers will undoubtedly rise again, but for the time being, they are in the red – and not the lucky kind.

Port Vale FC. They hold the record of being the longest-running professional team to never have played in the top tier. Quite a record. But. They do have a fantastic badge with a fascinating history. So let's #GetTheBadgeIn , and see what we can learn: Nestled in Burslem, one of Stoke-on-Trent’s historic towns, Port Vale F.C. might just be the only football club in England whose name doesn’t directly tie to a specific place. The name "Port Vale" instead nods to the port towns along the Trent and Mersey Canal. At least - that's the best guess. Other theories are that it started in a house called Port Vale (but then what was the house named after?). Who knows, but I think the (canal) vale of ports theory works well. In the traditionally quartered badge, we find symbols rooted deep in North Staffordshire’s history. (The older badge was a simple Staffordshire knot - much like the one on Tamworth FC's crest). The orange cross/waffle-looking thing (or fret couped argent - if you're being fancy) – is a reference to the Audley family, who held lands in the area before the Norman Conquest. Though they were clearly excellent survivors - unlike many Anglo-Saxon families in the north they kept their lands (and heads). They resided in nearby Heighley Castle for over 300 years until the Parliamentarians levelled it during the English Civil War. The scythe on the badge? That’s another local family symbol borrowed from the local Tunstall family arms, who in turn are referencing the Sneyd family, who owned swathes of Burslem land, including the area that now bears their name. The scythe connection to the Sneyd family is actually the most British thing ever - the word for a scythe's handle is a sned. The ancient family picked a pun to represent them in battle! And they did go to battle, the Sneyds were at the Battle of Poitiers when the English thrashed the French, and they added a French fleur-de-lys to their crest in honour (this did not make it onto the PVFC badge). The two vases on the badge symbolise the pottery industry that Stoke-on-Trent is most famous for and pay tribute to Josiah Wedgwood, a local businessman often seen as the driving force behind the Industrial Revolution. Certainly, most high school history departments give him the credit! The two pots each represent one of Wedgwood’s purpose-built "factory towns" on the canal, Burslem and Etruria. Staffordshire loved its factory towns during this time - Cadbury's built Bournville not too far away, for example. While the badge doesn’t feature the canal itself, the Trent and Mersey Canal's influence is woven into Port Vale’s identity. This canal, championed by Wedgwood in the 1760s, connected Staffordshire to Liverpool, reducing transport costs and opening up new markets. Completed in 1777, it fuelled the area’s growth, supporting other local industries like Burton's breweries and Middlewich salt works. So, a family of nobles able to adapt and thrive despite a foreign invasion, another family that liked a good pun and killing the French - and the man and the industry that was the driving force behind a revolution that took Britain from a miserable European backwater to the greatest Empire ever known. Persistence, Poitiers, and Pottery. Being stubborn, hating the French and creating world-beating industries. I'd vote for that. #UpTheVale

The logo of the Pittsburgh Steelers @steelers (and, fascinatingly, Huachipato FC @Huachipato in Chile, which uses the same image) have unique connections to the steel industry. Pittsburgh's began to rise as an economic powerhouse in the 1830s. It sits at a prime location at the convergence of three rivers that spread out into the American interior – as the country was expanding into the West it was the perfect location, with nearby coal deposits too, to set up steel refineries and then sail the heavy goods down river to the growing cities of the West. In 1848 the Pennsylvania Canal and Railroad only enhanced these natural advantages. Andrew Carnegie set up shop with his US Steel 1901 and soon became one the richest men in the world – his steel mills gave the city the name ‘Steel City’. When looking for a badge then for the American Football team to represent the city there was only one real choice – the badge of the American Iron and Steel Institute’s (AISI). It had three stars – in three colours: Each colour symbolises one of the essential materials for steel production: yellow for coal, orange for iron ore, and blue for steel scrap. Bizarrely, and uniquely, the Steelers’ logo is placed only on one side of the helmet, a distinctive decision made by a cautious and superstitious equipment manager. When they trailed the logo, he wasn’t sure of the reception so only placed it one side of the helmet. That season the Steelers broke all their records and won the championship. Determined not to undo their good luck, they’ve stuck with the one-sided helmet badge ever since. Across the world in Chile, Huachipato FC’s logo was also inspired by the AISI Steelmark. Formed in 1947, the club’s early supporters were steelworkers from the local Huachipato steel industry. Like the Steelers, Huachipato FC took the logo for their badge to represent their origins. When you think about England’s football teams too, with the likes of Sheffield United (‘The Blades’) and Sheffield Wednesday, it is interesting how many teams have a connection to steel (a Google search tells me that the Japanese football team Kawasaki Frontale emerged from a steel company team and there is a junior ice hocket team in Hamilton, Canada, named the ‘Steel Hawks’ after their town’s large steel mill).