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One of the giants of African football. Founded in 1908 in the city of Omdurman (on the left bank of the Nile, just opposite Khartoum, the capital), Al-Merrikh SC have won both the Sudanese title and Sudan Cup 19 times each. In 1989 they became the only Sudanese club ever to win a major continental trophy when they lifted the African Cup Winners’ Cup, defeating Bendel United FC of Nigeria. Their rivalry with neighbours Al-Hilal Club is one of the fiercest in Africa, with the two clubs separated only by Al-Ardha Street in Omdurman itself (Al-Merrikh means ‘Mars’ and Al-Hilal means ‘Crescent Moon’ – so this is a rivalry on a planetary scale!) More recently, though, the club has become symbolic of something larger than football. Because of the ongoing war in Sudan, Al-Merrikh have been forced to temporarily play league football in Rwanda. Recently they have been managed by former Newcastle United F.C. midfielder, and now Hartlepool boss, Lee Clark. Their badge is dominated by red and yellow. The red reflects both the club’s name (Mars) and the club’s nickname, “The Red Castle” (their ground), but the centrepiece is the yellow star. Across the region, stars often symbolise guidance, hope and national aspiration. On the flag of South Sudan, the same golden star is often referred to as the “Bethlehem Star”, representing a guiding light leading people forward. It fits Al-Merrikh perfectly. This is a club that, for many Sudanese, represents their efforts to navigate forwards through the turmoil of recent decades. In older Arabian mythology, Mars was linked to harshness, war and the unforgiving nature of the desert itself. There is something strangely appropriate about this club, forged in political upheaval and civil conflict, carrying the name of the red planet. The club itself began life in 1908 as Al-Masalma Sporting Club, founded by students from the Al-Masalmah district studying at Gordon Memorial College in Omdurman. This suddenly English-sounding name matters because it reveals a story about the very origins of the Sudanese state. During the 1880s, Sudan was engulfed by the Mahdist uprising, a massive religious and nationalist revolt led by Muhammad Ahmad al-Mahdi against Egyptian and Ottoman rule. The rebellion culminated in the siege of Khartoum and the death of Charles George Gordon in 1885. Gordon was an experienced soldier who had fought in Crimea and led a unit of Chinese irregulars to put down the Taiping Rebellion. He was ordered to go to Khartoum and evacuate Westerners ahead of the Mahdist advance. Overstepping his orders, he first evacuated the civilians but then remained with a small group of soldiers to try and negotiate with al-Mahdi. However, these talks failed and al-Mahdi laid siege to Gordon and his men inside Khartoum. Gordon organised the resistance and held out for a year before the Sudanese forces finally took the city, killing Gordon in the process. It was one of the defining imperial disasters of the Victorian age. Al-Mahdi himself died shortly after his victory and was buried at the UNESCO site of the Mahdi’s Tomb. The Mahdists, now led by the Khalifa, one of the Mahdi’s most loyal followers, found themselves in a strategically important position – by controlling the upper Nile they could exert pressure on Egypt, technically in Ottoman hands at the time but heavily influenced by the British. Doing that put pressure on Britain’s access to the Red Sea through Suez – which was always something of a red line for the British. They would fight and die to protect it. The British response came through Herbert Kitchener (the same fellow who was later brought out of retirement during the First World War to lead the recruitment campaign – it is his moustached face on the famous “Your Country Needs You” posters). In 1898, after constructing military railways across the desert and advancing south with overwhelming firepower, Kitchener defeated the Mahdist forces at the Battle of Omdurman. Sudan then became part of Anglo-Egyptian Sudan under effective British control. But empire was not built only with armies. It was also built with schools, railways, administration and sport. Gordon Memorial College was one of the flagship institutions of Kitchener’s reforms. Opened in 1902 and named after Gordon himself, it was designed to train a new Sudanese administrative and professional class. Engineering, surveying, teaching, law and clerical work were all taught there. The British brought with them the working man’s game of football, already deeply embedded in industrial Britain by this point. Like so many clubs across Africa and Asia, Al-Merrikh emerged from that collision between colonial education systems and local identity. Over time the club evolved far beyond those origins. Football in Sudan became a vehicle for civic pride, nationalism and mass identity. Al-Merrikh were no longer simply a team formed by students under colonial reforms. They became representatives of Omdurman, then representatives of Sudan itself. Their victories in continental competition carried enormous significance for a country often overlooked internationally except in times of famine, war or political upheaval. Even the city of Omdurman carries layers of symbolism. It was the capital of the Mahdist State after Khartoum fell. It was here that the Mahdi’s revolutionary Islamic state ruled Sudan before the British reconquest. The streets around Al-Merrikh’s stadium were once at the centre of one of the great anti-colonial movements of the nineteenth century. Then, a generation later, those same streets helped produce one of Africa’s oldest football clubs. The city has grown since these colonial days into the beating heart of an independent and powerful Sudan. Souq Omdurman is one of the largest street markets in the world and shows how important the city, Sudan’s second largest, is for trade and culture – with the River Nile and a series of important roads intersecting within the city. Tragically, the market is currently closed and, in large parts, gutted by the recent civil war. But the spirit of Omdurman will return – the essential ingredients for success have not left. While the football team has had to pack up and leave for foreign leagues, the guiding star of Bethlehem will surely bring the team of Mars back to its Red Castle before long. They have a nation to make proud.

Inter Milan. Italian giants. Nay — global giants. One of the most recognisable football clubs on Earth. I do a deep dive #GetTheBadgeIn on the club itself elsewhere. But in this post I wanted to look at something else. A symbol that appears all over Inter kits, third strips, marketing campaigns, and social media — despite not actually being the club badge. The snake. Or, more specifically, the Biscione. To understand why a giant serpent swallowing a bloke appears across the branding of one of Europe’s biggest football clubs, we need to head back into the history of Milan itself. And Milan has quite the history. During the Renaissance it became one of the great city states of Italy, ruled for long periods by the Visconti and later Sforza dynasties. Sitting in the wealthy plains of northern Italy, Milan became rich through trade, banking, metalwork, and warfare, developing into both an economic and military powerhouse. It also became one of the great centres of Renaissance learning and culture, attracting figures such as Leonardo da Vinci. When researching Milan, one family name kept appearing over and over again: the Sforzas. So who were they? The Sforzas were one of the great ruling families of Renaissance Italy. Originally rising through military service as powerful mercenary commanders — known as condottieri — they eventually took control of Milan during the 1400s after the decline of the Visconti family. Under rulers such as Francesco Sforza and Ludovico Sforza, Milan became famous for its armies, architecture, and patronage of artists, scientists, and engineers. One of those artists was, of course, Leonardo da Vinci. It was Ludovico Sforza, often known as Ludovico il Moro, who became Leonardo’s great patron in Milan. Leonardo worked for him for around 17 years from the early 1480s onwards. During that period he painted works such as The Last Supper, designed military machines and weapons, organised festivals, worked on engineering schemes, and generally behaved like the sort of absurdly talented overachiever that makes the rest of us feel inadequate. Under Ludovico, Milan became one of the great cultural capitals of the Renaissance. The clearest reminder of Sforza influence in the city today is the vast Sforza Castle — Castello Sforzesco. Originally built on the site of an older Visconti fortress, it became both a military stronghold and a grand ducal palace. Leonardo himself worked on decorative and engineering projects there. Today it still dominates central Milan, packed with museums, towers, courtyards, and artworks, including Michelangelo’s unfinished Rondanini Pietà. So that’s the family. What of the snake? Well, the snake actually predates the Sforzas entirely. The famous serpent — the Biscione — originally belonged to the Visconti family, the dynasty that ruled Milan before the Sforzas arrived. The image usually shows a giant snake or dragon swallowing a human figure, and over time it became one of the defining symbols of Milan itself. When the Sforzas took over the city, they inherited much of the prestige and symbolism associated with the Viscontis — including the snake. As a result, the Biscione became deeply linked with Milanese identity, nobility, power, and the ruling elite of the city state. They placed it on their family coat of arms the the symbols appear all over Milan today. Why a snake? Nobody really knows. Some believed the Biscione came from a legend in which a Visconti knight killed a giant serpent near Milan. Others thought the figure inside the snake symbolised rebirth rather than being eaten. Historians have also linked it to ancient Roman or pagan snake symbolism, or suggested it represented the defeat of enemies during the Crusading era. Whatever the origin, the symbol endured. And it still appears all over modern Milan today. Inter absolutely love using the snake motif on special kits and branding campaigns, but another place you have almost certainly seen it — probably without realising — is on the badge of Alfa Romeo. Alfa Romeo was founded in Milan in 1910 and its badge directly reflects the city’s history. One half shows the red cross of Milan, while the other features the famous Biscione serpent of the Visconti family. Even the name “ALFA” originally stood for Anonima Lombarda Fabbrica Automobili — literally “Lombard Automobile Factory”. The company was originally just called ALFA until engineer and businessman Nicola Romeo took control of the firm during the First World War. His surname was then added in 1920, creating the name Alfa Romeo. So there we have it. Inter Milan are not just carrying a fashionable modern symbol on their shirts, but one tied directly to centuries of Milanese history, warfare, dynasties, Renaissance politics, and civic pride. The snake of Milan has survived dukes, empires, industrialisation, and the modern football marketing department. And frankly, it still looks brilliant on a football shirt. So there you have it – the snake of Milan has survived empires, dukes, and industrial revolutions — and today still slithers proudly across football kits and sports cars alike.

One of the best-named places in Britain. South of London, roughly equidistant between Crawley, Guildford, and Croydon. One of the most remarkable stories in English football. Formed only in 1999 by ex-City banker Marc White, a local devastated by seeing his team Wimbledon fold, he and some friends decided to simply make their own club. They began life in Division 5 of the Crawley and District League, with Marc himself playing for the team. What followed was remarkable: 12 promotions in 23 seasons, with Marc becoming manager during that time. They climbed from the seventeenth tier of English football to the fifth, earning promotion to the National League in 2022. In 2023 they suffered their first ever relegation and currently compete in the increasingly competitive National League South, having made the play-offs in each of the last two seasons as they fight to get back into the National League. If you wanted to follow the exploits of this remarkable club, you absolutely can, and for free, on the YouTube channel “Bunch of Amateurs”, which has documented their journey with feature-length documentaries for several seasons now. It is a proper fans’ alternative to “Welcome to Wrexham”. Marc White’s “proper London geezer” charisma creates superb social media content as he takes the mick out of rivals and his own players during games. So that’s the club. And the owner-manager. What of the badge? Let’s address the elephant in the room: it looks like a fried chicken logo you would see on some declining high street. But. But… it is also absolutely brilliant and has become iconic in the lower leagues. It is a chicken. A Dorking chicken. What is a Dorking chicken? Well. See the image. It’s a chicken. From Dorking. The breed is famous amongst purveyors of poultry. Supposedly brought to England by the Romans, this five-toed chicken (most have four) was reported in and around the town by Roman writers. Over the centuries it was selectively bred in the south of England, particularly around the market town of Dorking. Hence the chicken got its name. The Dorking chicken was a favourite amongst farmers for being hardy enough to survive cold winters, a top producer of eggs during months when other breeds slowed down, and very easy to keep. They are comfortable around humans and do not tend to wander off. Their meat is tender and delicate, and they are easy to “fatten for the pot”. They were perfect, and made local farmers a very comfortable living. So comfortable, in fact, that the rumour was there was an unwritten rule preventing live chickens from leaving Dorking for fear of rivals getting hold of the breed. Geography also played a role. The sandy soil around Dorking drained water well, creating dry conditions ideal for raising chickens. The soil also contained small stones and grit, which chickens swallow to help grind up and digest their food because they do not have teeth. During the Victorian age, as Britain industrialised and cities like London grew, workers needed vast amounts of protein to fuel their labour. The chickens of Dorking stepped up to the plate. Literally. Would it be too far to say this humble chicken powered the Industrial Revolution and therefore the Empire? Probably. But it is worth a shot. As a market town, Dorking has a long history, with one writer in 1240 claiming the town had hosted two markets a week for longer than anyone could remember. It still runs a market today, so it has clearly been going a while. A Tudor writer even commented that it was the finest poultry market in all of England. Aside from chickens, Dorking has exported its fair share of non-conformists and radicals. Six members of the Mayflower’s crew were from the town, and later the famed author Daniel Defoe (no relation to England striker Jermain Defoe) lived there. Today, a vineyard north of the town is one of the largest producers of English wine in the country, something to accompany the excellent poultry. So there we have it. A football team that carries with it not just decades of remarkable fine-tuning on the pitch, but also the legacy of having spent centuries fine-tuning the perfect animal to feed the nation. Only a foul would bet against this bunch of amateurs making it to the EFL before long. I’m off to buy a Dorking shirt.

Founded in 1924, AEK Athens (The Athletic Union of Constantinople – Athens) has grown into one of the most successful sides in Greek football history, winning 33 major domestic honours, including 14 league titles and 16 Greek Cups. On the European stage, AEK have repeatedly carried the Greek flag into continental competition, becoming the first Greek club to reach the quarter-finals of the European Cup (now the Champions League) in 1968–69, later reaching the semi-finals of the UEFA Cup in 1976–77, and eventually becoming the only Greek club to reach the quarter-finals of four different European competitions. This season (25–26) they currently sit atop the Greek Super League with a comfortable lead. They are giants of Greek football. But. Their badge tells a remarkable story, one that connects the club to both ancient and modern history – and one of success in the face of struggle and loss. Few teams can boast such a mix, so let’s #GetTheBadgeIn and see what we can see… Before we deconstruct the badge, it will not make much sense until we understand the origins of the club itself. AEK Athens were formed by refugees from Istanbul (Constantinople, as it used to be called, as we will see) who came over during the Greek-Turkish War between 1919–1922, which explains the name. This is essentially a displaced football team, playing in a foreign land and in a foreign league. Bear that in mind as we dig deeper… So, to the badge – the two-headed bird, and the black and yellow colours come from the flags of the various Greek Orthodox Church organisations who were based in Constantinople and it also served as Imperial emblem under the last of the Emprerors of Byzantine. So ok, makes sense, given that they came from there… but then the next question is: what was Constantinople? And to answer that, we have to jump in our time machines and go way, way back – to the Ancient Greeks. Around 2,600 years ago, Greek settlers realised the value of building a settlement on the Bosphorus Strait – the narrow stretch of water linking the Black Sea to the Mediterranean. Control of this artery allowed the holder to tax and influence the flow of goods between Europe, Asia, and Africa. The lush fertile soils of Ukraine provided exceptional agricultural land, while the route also carried many Silk Road goods travelling across the flat Eurasian Steppe from China. Flowing the other way were goods from Europe, Africa, and the Middle East. It is quite the bottleneck. The Greeks built a small settlement there known as Byzantium, which began to flourish. However, it was not until centuries later that it really saw a huge new wave of investment and interest – this time from a Roman Emperor – Constantine the Great. Constantine could see that the Roman Empire was getting too large to be ruled solely from Rome, and he wanted to shift the centre of gravity closer to the Middle East and Eurasian territories it had conquered. The strategic location of Byzantium was perfect, so he nominated it as his new capital, and thousands of engineers and builders got to work creating a new imperial city. Which he named after himself, just in case anyone forgot how great a guy he was. For almost a thousand years, this city, which soon boasted layers of high walls to add to its natural defences in the form of the Bosphorus to the east, the Golden Horn harbour to the north, and the Sea of Marmara to the south, became the near-impenetrable centre of the Roman Empire (and continued to do so even after Rome and the ‘Western Empire’ fell). Their battles against the Persians (Iranians) were epic – the two great superpowers of the age clashing head-to-head. This went on for centuries until both were pushed back by the emergence of Islam, whose armies crashed against the Byzantine defences before eventually driving them back to their shrinking heartlands in modern Turkey on the approaches to Constantinople. Right, this still puts us a zillion or so years away from the event that eventually leads to the creation of AEK Athens – but it is vital context. Constantinople then, as the capital of the old Roman Empire (which he now called ‘The Byzantine Empire’), held out until 1453 when it finally fell to the tactical genius of Mehmed II, who had built the world’s largest siege cannons for the occasion and used greased logs to lift ships out of the sea, move them overland, and deposit them back into the Golden Horn Harbour, thereby bypassing the defensive chain (literally a chain wall) erected by the defenders to shut the entrance of the Strait. However, the eagle-eyed amongst you will notice this is still 500-odd years before the events leading to the footballing refugees of AEK Athens. This is because even after the fall of the city to the Ottomans, large communities of Christians continued to live and work within the city and the lands around it, while the city itself officially kept the name Constantinople right up until the 1930s before switching to Istanbul. So, let’s bring ourselves to where we need to be – the Greek-Turkish War of 1919. Following the end of the First World War, the Ottoman Empire was broken up, and the Greeks spied an opportunity to bring many of their Greek and Christian brothers and sisters living within former Ottoman territory under Greek control. A Greek force was sent in to secure these areas, with the consent of the British and French, but the conflict quickly turned deadly and expanded as a troublesome Turk by the name of Kemal Atatürk (the same feller who had masterminded the Allied defeat at Gallipoli) led nationalist Turkish forces in a counterattack. The war officially ended with the Treaty of Lausanne in 1923, which recognised the modern Republic of Turkey. It also led to a compulsory population exchange between Greece and Turkey: around 1.5 million Greeks were forced to leave Turkey, while hundreds of thousands of Muslims were moved in the other direction. These events permanently changed the ethnic and cultural makeup of both countries and left deep memories that still shape Greek-Turkish relations today. And so, ladies and gents, we finally have our footballing refugees… Before the Greco-Turkish War, the large Greek communities of Constantinople had a strong sporting culture centred around football, athletics, boxing, cycling, and tennis. The city’s wealthy and densely populated urban districts supported numerous athletic clubs which promoted both physical competition and kept up their Greek cultural identity through their sports clubs. After World War I, the arrival of British and French troops in the occupied city brought new opportunities for organised competition. The young soldiers and sailors of the British garrison were fresh from the industrial towns and cities of Britain where football had taken root - they played amongst themselves - and organised games with the locals. These matches helped raise standards, increased the popularity of football, and further embedded sport into the identity of Constantinople’s Greek population. Following the end of the war and the population exchanges that followed the war, many refugee footballers moved to Greece, where they helped establish AEK Athens F.C. as both a sporting institution and a symbol of the lost Greek communities of Constantinople that they had once called home. This image shows the team photo from 1924. So, that is AEK Athens. They fly the flag of Constantinople, the Christian capital they were forced to leave in the 1920s, but which had stood as a bastion for more than a thousand years and hosted an active and vibrant Greek Christian community for centuries even after its fall. AEK – The Athletic Union of Constantinople – based in Athens. That’s quite a legacy.

Córdoba FC, or, to be more precise, Córdoba Club de Fútbol. The team itself dates back to 1934, before the current organisation was created in 1954. Over the decades, they have drifted around the second and third tiers of Spanish football, with a total of eight seasons in the top flight, La Liga, during the 1960s and 1970s. A 5th-place finish remains their highest achievement to date, but unfortunately their ground at the time did not meet UEFA specifications and so they were not allowed to compete in European competition. More recently, their fortunes have improved. After slumping into the fourth tier of Spanish football, the club was bought in 2019 by a Bahrain-based investment fund. The extra investment helped — promotions in 2022 and 2024 saw them return to the second tier, eyeing a place in La Liga once more. The team’s colours, green and white stripes, are taken directly from the flag of the region Córdoba sits within — Andalusia — which encompasses essentially all of southern Spain. These colours are clearly reflected on the badge itself. Atop these stripes are the red lions of the Kingdom of León and the three-towered castle of Castile. These require some explanation, however, as Córdoba sits well outside the territorial limits of either of these kingdoms (León in the north-west and Castile in central Spain). So what is going on here? They became part of Córdoba’s story in 1236 when, as part of the wider Reconquista, Ferdinand III of Castile captured the city. Ferdinand was monarch of both Castile and León, and so his coat of arms featured both the lion and castle motifs, which became connected to the cities he captured during this period. But wait, we are getting a little ahead of ourselves here. Before we go much further, we need to look back at the city’s older heritage in order to understand one more aspect of Córdoba’s identity — their nickname: Los Califas. That’s right. Córdoba was for centuries the Islamic capital of Spain. Córdoba itself sits in southern-central Spain in the Guadalquivir River valley, home to the only navigable river in Spain. In 711 CE, a Muslim force led by Tariq ibn Ziyad crossed the sea from North Africa and landed at the Rock of Gibraltar, which the Muslims called Jabal Tariq — “the Mountain of Tariq” — from which we get the modern name Gibraltar today. Advancing inland, he confronted the local Visigothic forces, who had taken control of Spain following the collapse of the Roman Empire. The settlement along the river valley became a natural target because of its strategic location, fertile land, and surviving Roman infrastructure. It quickly became the capital of the new Islamic kingdom in Spain. Initially, it was run as a branch of the wider Umayyad Dynasty based in Damascus. However, after the Umayyads were overthrown, the centre of the Islamic world shifted to Baghdad under the Abbasid Dynasty. As a result, the Muslim settlers in Spain became increasingly isolated and independent. While Baghdad experienced its famous Golden Age, Córdoba too flourished. Under the leadership of Abd al-Rahman III, the city declared itself an independent Caliphate — hence the club’s nickname today: The Caliphs. The territory they controlled in southern Spain became known as Al-Andalus, giving modern Andalusia its name. Even today, the region’s flamenco traditions may preserve traces of this heritage. For example, many believe the cry of “Olé!” shouted during performances may derive from the Arabic word “Allah”. During Muslim rule, Córdoba was one of the largest and most advanced cities in Europe. Visitors would have seen bustling markets, public baths, paved streets, libraries, gardens, and the magnificent Mosque–Cathedral of Córdoba dominating the skyline. Córdoba also became one of the major centres of learning in the world — a rival to its larger counterpart of Baghdad in the east. Its libraries were famed for housing thousands of manuscripts from across both the Christian and Muslim worlds. Positioned on the frontier between these civilisations, the city became a centre of translation and scholarship, attracting thinkers able to combine ideas from both traditions to advance astronomy, science, mathematics, medicine, and philosophy.. Its preservation of translated Arabic versions of ancient Greek and Roman texts proved invaluable centuries later when European scholars began translating them into Latin. These works helped provide the intellectual fuel for the Renaissance that swept through Italy and southern Europe during the 1400s. Córdoba, alongside cities such as Toledo, acted as one of the guardians of this ancient knowledge. More recently, Córdoba again became associated with revolutionary conflict, playing a significant role in the beginning of the Spanish Civil War in 1936. The city was one of the first to be seized by the Nationalists under General Franco. Local Republicans, who supported the elected Socialist government, held out in government buildings until they were eventually forced to surrender after Franco brought in heavy artillery. Córdoba became a key Nationalist stronghold and saw fierce repression during the war. Thousands of suspected Republicans, trade unionists, and political opponents were executed or imprisoned in and around the city. The surrounding province also witnessed heavy fighting as Republican forces attempted to retake territory. So there we have it. The Caliphs. The former Islamic capital. A centre of learning and culture. Guardians of classical knowledge. Conquering Christian monarchs. And later, both a spark of the Civil War and a place of resistance that held out as long as it could. Córdoba FC’s badge tells quite a tale.

Swindon is a place that gets a bad reputation. Supposedly, when Ricky Gervais was scripting The Office, the writers wanted to base the show in a town bleak and ordinary enough to fit their depiction of office life. I was strangely honoured to hear the shortlist reportedly came down to Ipswich (my hometown), Swindon, or Slough. Slough got the nod in the end, while Swindon became home to the rival branch office in the series. For American readers, think of how The US Office is in Scranton. You get the idea. But anyone who has actually visited Swindon knows there is more to it than the stereotypes suggest. The town has a strange but very genuine charm to it. More importantly, it possesses far more economic and industrial importance than many people realise — certainly more than my own hometown. Swindon was transformed, and in turn transformed the nation, by the railway revolution during the Victorian era. Later it became a major centre for manufacturing, engineering, telecommunications, and car production. Beneath the jokes about roundabouts and business parks lies one of the great industrial success stories of modern Britain. And that history is embedded in the badge of Swindon Town F.C.. The team have had it all: promotions, relegations, Wembley triumphs, financial scandals and Premier League status – so – lets do the Robins the honour, and #GetTheBadgeIn to see what we can learn about them. Swindon have had some genuinely remarkable moments. They were Southern League champions before joining the Football League in 1920, League Cup winners against Arsenal F.C. in 1969, and were in the Premier League in 1993 under Glenn Hoddle. They also managed one of football’s fastest rises, climbing from the Fourth Division to the First in just five seasons (take that, Wrexham), before the whole thing collapsed into financial scandal and punishment from the authorities (take note, Wrexham). Over the years Swindon Town have used at least five different major crests. Early versions featured a robin inside a traditional shield alongside the letters STFC. That eventually evolved into the famous “steam train badge”, still beloved by supporters today and clearly the spiritual inspiration behind the modern crest. And it is a cracker – and heads and shoulders above the strange designs that have come before it. The current quartered shield is based on the old coat of arms of Swindon itself. Sitting proudly across the top is the famous Great Western Railway locomotive Lord of the Isles (a Swindon built train that was so advanced that in 1851 it was on display at the Great Exhibition in the Crystal Palace in London). So without further ado – let’s dig a bit deeper into this railway legacy. Recorded in the Domesday Book as Suindune — “Pig Hill” — (which maybe explains why they've been so keen on rebranding...) Swindon was originally a small market settlement surrounded by farmland and grazing land. In the early 1800s it was still a fairly quiet Wiltshire town with only a few thousand inhabitants. Then the railway arrived – and everything changed. In 1843 that great Industrial Revolution engineer Isambard Kingdom Brunel worked with the Great Western Railway and selected Swindon as the site for their main engineering works. Swindon sat roughly halfway between London and Bristol, making it ideal for servicing locomotives travelling along Brunel’s rapidly expanding railway network. What followed was one of the great industrial expansions of Victorian Britain. The Swindon Works became an enormous railway engineering complex capable of designing, constructing, maintaining, and repairing locomotives on a massive scale. At its peak it employed over 14,000 people and effectively functioned as a town within a town. Generations of Swindon families worked there. To accommodate the new influx of workers entire new districts were built, most famously the Railway Village, with neat rows of brick houses constructed specifically for railway employees. Workers had access to medical care through the GWR Medical Fund Society, alongside libraries, bathhouses, education facilities, and social clubs. Some historians claim it was the Swindon railway healthcare system that became the blueprint for the NHS after the Second World War. This takes us right back to the badge, which displays the town’s motto in a ribbon along the bottom: "Salubritas et Industria", e.g. Health and Industry. Skilled engineering became a source of local pride. Swindon developed a reputation for producing highly trained craftsmen, mechanics, metalworkers, and engineers. There was a sense that the town was helping build modern Britain itself. Every locomotive leaving the works slipped out onto the British rail network and became the blood cells of the most advanced industrial system on Earth. The old railway workshops remain among the defining landmarks of Swindon, now repurposed into places such as the STEAM Museum and the Designer Outlet. Street names, public buildings, and local culture still carry the mark of Brunel and the GWR. Right. Ok, so… why on Earth aren’t they still known as the Railwaymen? Well. Occasionally they are, but more often than not they are known as the Robins. Now, this is a little confusing as their not-far-away rivals, Bristol City, also share the same name and emblem on their badge. However, Swindon too, adopting red and white kits in 1904, became known as The Robins for their on pitch appearance. It wouldn’t be right to end without mentioning the awful attempts in the past to modernise the badge - During the 1970s the club introduced the infamous “ST arrow” badge, a circular design with interlocking letters and arrows that looked less like a football crest and more like directions around Swindon’s nearby Magic Roundabout. But they didn’t learn their lesson: Following a financial scandal that denied Swindon promotion to the top flight in 1990, the club attempted another complete reset with the notorious diamond-shaped crest. This featured a giant stylised “S”, a swirling football supposedly “travelling dynamically into the future”. Officially it represented progress and ambition. Unofficially it looked like the sort of logo you would expect to see on the side of a pack of blank 1980s VHS tapes. It’s awful. For some reason it reminds of shell suits. An experiment best forgotten. Thank goodness in 2007 the club saw sense and offered the fans three new logos, all mostly along the same shield quartered with the train along the top approach, and the fans picked the current one – which is rather fine. The team represents labour, engineering, and industrial and civic pride. It pioneered the NHS and by embarrassing itself to thoroughly with 1980s and 1990s redesigns it probably served a greater purpose in discouraging many other teams to sacrifice their heritage on the alter of late 20th century design trends. So thank you Swindon. Thank you for the trains the powered the Industrial Revolution and thank you for a team with a fine history which provided kids in the early 1990s with one of the more interesting ‘shiny’ football badge stickers to add to their Merlin Premier League sticker books.

Yesterday, the Kidderminster Harriers F.C. won promotion to the National League, defeating South Shields F.C. 2-0 and moving back up the pyramid. The Harriers have enjoyed success in their past as an established EFL side, with a highest-ever finish of 10th in League Two in 2002. They have also built up quite a trophy cabinet, including an FA Trophy win and a remarkable 27 Worcestershire Senior Cups. The team have spent their entire history playing at Aggborough Stadium, a very neat-looking ground which seats around 7,000 and frankly looks far too tidy for National League North. Along with a strong ground, they are also an incredibly strong brand. Growing up as a kid listening to the day’s football results coming in, they were always a name that stood out. Despite being formed in 1886, they almost sound like an American-style franchise team. “Harriers” certainly catches the ear amongst the endless sea of Uniteds, Citys, and Rovers that make up much of English football. So, let’s #GetTheBadgeIn and see what lies behind the name. The Harriers. If you have heard the term before, it is probably connected not to football clubs, but to running and athletics clubs. And that is exactly where Kidderminster’s name comes from. The club was initially formed out of a local running club, itself founded in 1877, before merging with the local rugby club to create “Kidderminster Harriers and Football Club” — with rugby commonly referred to simply as “football” at the time. In 1886, the club switched codes and adopted Association Football instead. But why “Harriers” in the first place? To understand that, you need to know about the Victorian-era craze for “hare and hounds” clubs. These clubs, the first of which was the Thames Hare and Hounds Club in 1868 (pictured), were based around a cross-country chasing game that later evolved into organised cross-country running. Beginning in public schools such as Repton before spreading across the country, they became hugely popular with young people. In these events, one or more runners, known as the “hares”, would set off first and leave a trail of paper scraps — hence the alternative name “paperchase” — across the countryside. The remaining runners, known as the “hounds”, followed later and attempted to track and catch them. The activity was part sport, part outdoor adventure, and part social gathering. It developed endurance, navigation, teamwork, and fitness, and probably sounds a lot healthier than sitting indoors for days scrolling social media or playing Roblox, as much of today’s youth seem inclined to do. Over time, the chasing aspect faded and the sport gradually developed into modern cross-country running. The term “harrier” became closely associated with runners covering rough terrain in pursuit of a trail, which is why clubs such as Kidderminster Harriers F.C. inherited the name. And from there, the badge almost designs itself. A marsh harrier, one of Britain’s largest birds of prey, creates a distinctive “V” shape with its wings as it swoops down on prey, making it a fitting symbol for a football club. Kidderminster itself, situated south-west of Birmingham, has roots stretching back to Anglo-Saxon times. It grew into a major centre for cloth-making, benefitting from its position at a crossroads between larger settlements, its proximity to the River Severn where cloth could be washed, and the sheep-producing areas nearby that supplied wool. Over the centuries, this specialisation received further boosts from skilled French Huguenot migrants — many of whom also settled across East Anglia — followed by the opening of the Staffordshire and Worcestershire Canal and later the railway in 1852. One of the Harriers’ other nicknames was “The Carpetmen”, owing to the town’s expertise in carpet weaving. By 1951, more than thirty carpet manufacturers operated in the town, employing over 15,000 people. The local newspaper is still called The Shuttle, named after the shuttles used on carpet looms. Sadly, the local carpet museum, which helped preserve this tradition, closed last year due to financial difficulties. Hopefully, it can be revived soon, because losing something like that feels like a senseless and rather tragic blow to local history and culture. Yet, let's look on the bright side. Their football team is now sweeping back up the league - and with it will come a handful of extra fans each week as Kidderminster again can host some of the larger names in English football. The town will benefit - and maybe some of the visitors will stop to take an interest in the local There is more in Kidderminster's history left to weave.

Next up on our tour of Italian cities and their football teams is the ancient city of Padua. Nestled a few miles inland from Venice in the north-east corner of Italy, it has a remarkable history. They are represented on the pitch by Calcio Padova who are currently plying their trade in Serie B amongst the likes of Ashley Cole’s Cesena. Formed in 1910, their best days came in the late 1950s and early 1960s, recording a third-place finish in Serie A. Since then, they have bounced between Serie B and C, with a brief early-1990s reappearance in the top flight. However, their trajectory is currently back upwards. They were promoted back to Serie B last season and are currently sitting mid-table, hopefully enough to keep them up and allow them to build again next year. Their badge, however, links us to an incredible tale that places this city at the very heart of the Renaissance and at the forefront of astronomy, art, and medical advances. So, let’s #GetTheBadgeIn and see what we can learn... The badge is immediately familiar to all Englishmen, and Turks too, as it features the flag of St George. Saint George was and still is hugely popular across Italy, with Genoa CFC on the opposite coast also carrying his symbol. They even wore a kit this season that looked like a flag-waving Brexiteer’s fever dream. Alas, the symbol is very much European in origin. The cognitive dissonance required to process that is probably best left for another day. St George became associated with Padua back in 1370 when the wealthy Lupi family, whose name wonderfully translates as “wolves”, commissioned a chapel in his honour that also doubled as a family burial site. Called the Oratory of St George, it contains some of the most beautiful frescoes you are ever likely to see. This cemented the connection between St George and the city, ensuring the flag found its way onto Padua’s coat of arms and, eventually, onto the football club’s badge. The Lupi family were, in a sense, competing with another great local dynasty: the Scrovegni family. A few years earlier they had built the famous Scrovegni Chapel, which also boasted extraordinary frescoes. What makes this chapel particularly entertaining is that it was commissioned by Enrico Scrovegni, son of a wealthy banking family, as penance for the family fortune having been built on usury, the charging of interest on loans. Presumably the idea of simply stopping the usury never quite occurred to anyone. A very medieval compromise. Together, these two chapels form part of today’s UNESCO World Heritage Site known as the “Padua Frescoes”. These paintings were not just beautiful works of art; they became the laboratory of Renaissance humanism. The artists depicted people with greater realism, emotion, and movement than ever before, techniques that would come to define Renaissance art across Europe. If Renaissance painting was born anywhere, there is a strong argument that it was born inside the chapels of Padua. As such, the 2022–23 Calcio Padova third kit was a genuinely beautiful effort, incorporating those same frescoes directly into the shirt design. Yet, even that is probably not the thing most people know Padua for. Arguably its greatest contribution to the wider world was its university. The University of Padua, founded in 1222, is one of the oldest universities in Europe and among the most important institutions of the Renaissance. Its students and teachers included Nicolaus Copernicus (heliocentrism), Galileo Galilei (astronomy and physics), and William Harvey, the Englishman who discovered blood circulation. The university became especially famous for medicine through the work of Andreas Vesalius, who transformed anatomy by using direct human dissection rather than relying solely on ancient texts. His work corrected centuries of errors from the Roman doctor Galen, whose teachings had gone largely unquestioned for over a millennium, and helped lay the foundations of modern scientific medicine. A lasting symbol of Padua’s medical legacy is its Anatomical Theatre, built in 1594 and considered the world’s oldest surviving permanent anatomical theatre. Designed with steep wooden galleries around a central dissection table, it allowed students to watch anatomy demonstrations almost like spectators at a performance. These spaces were called “theatres” because dissections were public displays of learning, with professors presenting the human body almost like actors on a stage. This Renaissance belief in learning through direct observation became central to modern medicine, and the term “operating theatre” still survives today. And the incredible Renaissance connections do not stop there. Before we move on from Padua, we need to address the other, older badge once used by the football club which, to the untrained eye, looks suspiciously like a homage to Ipswich Town F.C.. On some historic crests, the right-hand side of the shield features a horse with its hoof resting atop what looks remarkably like a football, just like my own beloved Town. Alas, this is not a Suffolk Punch representing Kieran McKenna’s men. Instead, it depicts the famous Gattamelata statue standing proudly in Padua’s city centre. Created by Donatello, while presumably taking a brief break from fighting crime under the tutelage of Splinter, it was the first full-sized bronze equestrian statue produced since the days of the Roman Empire. Once again, Padua found itself at the forefront of Renaissance innovation in realism, proportion, and artistic detail. The horse carries the Venetian general Erasmo da Narni, better known as Gattamelata, while its raised hoof rests upon a cannonball. Which makes its resemblance to Ipswich’s football-playing Suffolk Punch genuinely uncanny. So there we have it. Rich bankers searching for forgiveness through architecture, the laboratory of Renaissance painting and sculpture, and the birthplace of modern medicine, all somehow resulting in a football crest that looks like a mash-up of the England badge and the Ipswich Town F.C. crest. There is a lot to be proud of in this club. A pre-season friendly against fellow “horse resting on a ball” badge-bearers Ipswich would be superb.

Mainz, Germany. Located on the west bank of the Rhine River – Northern Europe’s most important trade route. It sits opposite Wiesbaden and close to Frankfurt, making it an important transport hub for the wider region. Its football team, FSV Mainz 05 (founded in 1905 – hence the 05, as many German teams do), has in recent decades cemented itself in the Bundesliga without really challenging for the top positions. A few Europa League forays and a quarter-final appearance in the UEFA Conference League this season show they are currently in fine form. Team legend is undoubtedly a certain Jürgen Klopp, who made 325 appearances for the club as a player before managing them from 2001 to 2008, getting them promoted in that time to the Bundesliga. The lessons he learned there were enough to allow him to take both Borussia Dortmund and then Liverpool to incredible trophy hauls during his time with them. Just over a year from Klopp’s departure, the club appointed a new manager – a Mr Thomas Tuchel. Again, Mainz was the launchpad for a stellar managerial career – Tuchel went from there to Borussia Dortmund, to PSG, to Chelsea, to Bayern Munich – and, as of 2025, the England national team. What is in the water at Mainz? So that’s the club. What of the city and the badge? The badge itself is fairly straightforward, as many German teams’ badges are – simple, effective, stylistic, and linked, in a subtle way, to the ancient history of the city as a centre of religious authority. So let’s well and truly #GetTheBadgeIn and see what we can discover. Let’s go right back 2,000 years ago, because there’s a lot of cracking history to cover here. First up, the Romans. They discovered a small settlement of Celtic tribes along the Rhine River and, realising it was a great spot from which to dominate the trade and security of the area, ousted them and built themselves a forward operating base of sorts. They founded Mogontiacum, as they called it, and began stationing legions there and building roads, baths, temples, and a theatre, which turned the area into a large urban centre. Today the ruins of this Roman city are everywhere around the city: From the aqueduct that brought freshwater into the city (pictured) to the theatre that entertained its people and dozens of archways, gates, temples and baths - all preserved within the city limits. But it was to be centuries later that this town was to become one of the most important in Western Christendom. Following the fall of the Roman Empire, central Europe splintered into rival regions and city-states – all of whom shared a collective sense of past and roots in that old Roman Empire. In 800 AD, the Pope crowned the great conqueror Charlemagne as a new ‘Emperor’ of what was left of the Roman Empire – which, as we have seen, became known as the ‘Holy Roman Empire’. However, it couldn’t have been much more different from the old Roman Empire – it was decentralised and the Emperor was elected by local princes. And this is where Mainz comes into it. Mainz, as an important trading and military centre, came to host an archbishopric inside the mighty Mainz Cathedral. The Archbishop was one of the ‘Electors’ of the Holy Roman Emperor. It is from this position that the city derives its coat of arms – a symbol that often appears on the FSV Mainz home shirts (it is on the back of the 25–26 shirt) and is known as the Wheel of Mainz. Its origins are argued over, but the most popular theory, as told by the Brothers Grimm – two German brothers who collected folklore and published it during the 18th and 19th centuries – is that it links back to Archbishop Willigis, who took up the role in 975. Willigis had an unlikely background; he came from a poor family of wheelwrights, and his opponents looked down on his lowly birth and mocked him. Not one to be put off, Willigis decided to own it and adopted the wheel symbol as his coat of arms. The round ‘wheel’ formed by the stylised M in the FSV Mainz badge today looks remarkably like the wheel symbol itself, and while I cannot find any source directly linking the two, it is a happy coincidence if not intentional. The next section of the city’s history can be told through the very odd-looking youth team club mascot – Johannes the Clown. This mascot represents two things at once – one of Europe’s greatest technological innovations and a long history of partying. In order, then, let’s start with the innovation: the printing press. Anyone who knows a thing or two about history will know the name of the Gutenberg printing press. It is credited with helping to spark both the Renaissance and the Protestant Reformation that spread across Germany and then, thanks to Henry VIII, England. The printing press was remarkable in that its use of movable type allowed books and pamphlets to be quickly created and spread. With them went ideas, controversies, and even new religions. It sounds fairly unremarkable, but it suddenly reduced the cost of reading materials so that anybody could get hold of them (most people could not read – why learn a difficult skill that you could only use if you had the money for books?). It also challenged the power of the Church. Up until then, books had been painstakingly handwritten by monks in monasteries across the continent. And who controlled what books were copied out? The Church, of course – they decided what could be written. The printing press democratised knowledge. That wooden machine, with a few simple metal pieces of type, ushered in a political and technological earthquake that put Europe on course to become the dominant power for centuries afterwards. The inventor? Johannes Gutenberg. That slightly creepy mascot is named after the father of printing. …but why call him a clown? This is where Mainz’s culture and history of carnivals comes into play. The Rhineland region is home to a long-standing tradition of wild carnivals that culminate on the first day of Lent. In Mainz itself, the event involved the leadership of the city – even the Elector. During these celebrations, roles at court were rearranged at random. In 1664, the prince-elector drew the role of cabinetmaker; in 1668, he was cup-bearer and had to serve all guests. This custom was called the “Mainzer Königreich” (Mainz kingdom). Locals would wear colourful costumes and masks to hide their identity, which also gave them cover for acts of extreme behaviour. Mainz has continued this tradition with the Mainzer Fastnacht, which begins every 11 November at 11:11am and lasts until the spring, with various parades throughout. It involves floats, elaborate costumes, and characters with massive heads representing local German folk stories. The parades head to the main square and the ‘Festival Fountain’, an intricate sculpture featuring more than 200 bronze figures, including (are you ready?): Father Rhine, a monk, a fool with his symbols, Harlequin, and a man with a plank before his head, as well as a cat, Till Eulenspiegel, Hanswurst, and the city goddess Moguntia, money-washers, vagrants, exaggerated heads, jesters, and jugglers – alongside vine tendrils and famous local foods such as bread, sausage, and wine. It is quite the statue. Revellers in the parades create impressive – and slightly unsettling – papier-mâché heads (known as Schwellkopp characters) based on famous folklore. In recent years, the football club has picked one of these characters as the basis of their third ‘Carnival’ shirts, which sell out almost instantly. This year it is based on a character called Lisbetche, traditionally depicted wearing a pink feather boa and patterned blouse. What better focus for a football shirt? So there you have it. A very simple badge design that tells the story of Roman forts, humble tradesmen rising to become Electors of emperors, a technology that transformed the world and launched the modern era – and a thousand-year-old tradition of wild parties and celebrations of folklore. Not to mention two of the most successful football managers of the modern era. I bloody love FSV Mainz 05.

A club founded in 1904 (hence of 04), with a huge history, a massive fan base, and one of the strongest traditions of supporter involvement in European football. Relegated recently, yes – but back again now in the Bundasliga and ready to mix it with the big boys of the continent. They have a proud history, able to boast 7 league titles, five German Cups and a UEFA Cup win. They are the 6th biggest club in Europe if using club membership as a metric. To understand Schalke, though, you have to understand Gelsenkirchen – the city from which they come - the Ruhr – the district in which it sits. This is the industrial heart of Germany. Coal mines. Ironworks. Smoke, fire, noise, graft. At its peak, the region was known as the “City of a Thousand Fires” – the night sky permanently lit up by furnaces and industry. Which is why Schalke are known as “The Miners.” This is the beating, burning heart of German industrial might. An area deemed so vital, and so rich, that after the Second World War it was formed into the European Coal and Steel Community – an amalgamation of French and German heavy industry run under a system of joint custody to ensure the two historic rivals developed hand in hand. The ERGC is the direct forerunner of the European Union. The continent was forged in the Ruhr in more ways then one. And like all great industrial regions, the Ruhr didn’t just rely on local labour. It pulled people in. Large numbers came from the Masurian region of Poland, moving west to take up work in the mines and factories. These communities became embedded in the area. So much so that parts of Gelsenkirchen were nicknamed “Little Ortelsburg”, after a town back in Masuria. Many of Schalke’s early players came from these backgrounds. Football became a way for these communities to express identity, pride, and belonging. However, if you’ve heard of the Ruhr before, there’s a good chance you have a GCSE in History. Famously, and as all school children in the UK are taught, after the Treaty of Versailles in 1919, this region was part of the wider area that was demilitarised, with its output effectively earmarked to help pay Germany’s reparations to France. In 1923, though, the Weimar Republic could no longer keep up the payments. The French response was blunt – they sent in their army and occupied the Ruhr, intending to take what they were owed directly. Some locals resisted, and a number were killed, but the most significant resistance came from the workers themselves. They simply downed tools. No coal. No steel. No output. No reparation payments. The German government kept paying the salaries of these striking workers – by printing money. And that decision helped trigger the hyperinflation crisis that tore through Germany in the early 1920s. Schalke sits right in the middle of that story. And it’s not alone. Clubs like Borussia Dortmund, also rooted in Ruhr coal, and FC Shakhtar Donetsk in Ukraine’s Donbas share similar origins. All three have, at various points, even leaned into that identity with coal-inspired kits. In 2014 Schalke 04 even turned the player tunnel into a mineshaft in honour of these roots. The industrial backbone of the Schalke region was built by figures like Friedrich Grillo, whose ironworks helped drive its expansion. That legacy still exists today in companies like Schalker Eisenhütte Maschinenfabrik GmbH – a direct line from the past into the present. The secondary logo of the club (taken from the city coat of arms) is the cross hammers of industry – something used by both West Ham in London and the aforementioned FC Shakhtar Donetsk in Ukraine. But like many industrial regions, the Ruhr has had to adapt. Gelsenkirchen now presents itself as a centre for renewable energy. Companies like Shell Solar Deutschland GmbH and Scheuten Solar Technology produce solar cells and panels here – a shift from coal beneath the ground to energy from above it. Schalke’s stadium story reflects that mix of past and present as well. The old Parkstadion stadium had a remarkable history. In 1987, it hosted a mass led by Pope John Paul II, who was later made an honorary member of the club (fitting, as he had played goal keeper in his youth). The modern arena takes things even further. During construction, it actually had to be slightly repositioned to avoid two coal mine shafts beneath the surface – a reminder that even now, everything here is built on that industrial past. The foundations themselves use compacted columns of slag from nearby steel production. And then there’s the design. Retractable roof. Slide-out pitch. 4-way suspended big screen from the roof. Features that have since been copied around the world, including in NFL stadiums. Practical, efficient, forward-thinking and rooted in heavy engineering – very Ruhr. The badge, then – to properly #GetTheBadgeIn – reflects that culture too - simple, pure, efficient and practical. It all slots together. Just S04 wrapped in the G of Gelsenkirchen, its home city. Schalke 04 then, a club built on coal, carried by its huge membership, and shaped by one of the most important industrial regions in Europe. Next season they’ll bring their fire and steel back to the Bundesliga.

Hamburg SV (Sport-Verein = Sports Club) is a German Bundesliga team from the large and important port city of Hamburg. It is, like many European and Asian teams, a multi-sports club, but its most famous and biggest team by far is its football club. Since their foundation in 1919 they’ve had some remarkable success down the ages: six-time German league champions and winners of the German Cup three times. Last season, they won promotion back to the top division, and this season have a good buffer so far to avoid immediate relegation and look to establish themselves again as one of the big boys of German football. One of the club’s nicknames is “The Dinosaur”, given that it is one of the oldest clubs in Germany. This is partly, again, due to its port location. Football was invented in the factory towns of England (and codified on the fields outside Cambridge University), and so became a major British cultural export. British sailors stopped in Hamburg and played the game with locals, helping to inspire the birth of football in the city. Initially, Hamburg boasted three clubs, but after the First World War – and the associated loss of local manpower – the three clubs merged to form one, giving them a better chance of competing on the national stage. Hamburg itself sits about 100 km inland from the actual coast, but at the end of the wide Elbe River. This unique position has made it perfect over the centuries as Germany's natural port. It gave direct access to the very heart of central Europe. Its wharfs bustled with incoming foreign goods and then loaded up river barges with all the grain, timber, furs, meat, leather – and beer – that the German hinterland could produce. Underpinning this geographical advantage was a smart political one – the Hanseatic League. This organisation of North Sea ports created a large network of free-trade cities. From Ipswich on the east coast of England to Riga in Latvia, the goods of Northern Europe and the Baltic could be packaged up and shipped about with minimal taxes or paperwork. An embryonic EU – and it made them rich. Hamburg, sitting at the centre of this network, grew especially so. When, in 1871, the German states united into the modern nation state we know today, Hamburg joined – but on condition it could retain its free port status. It did, and trade was turbo-boosted by the new German single market. The city today, with its grand and beautiful churches, homes, merchant quarters and city halls, is a testament to its wealth. Along with heavier goods, Hamburg also developed itself as the European centre of the coffee trade – with even today around one-third of all the continent’s coffee coming in via the port. The historic Kaffeebörse (coffee exchange) would be filled with buyers weighing and inspecting different beans and haggling for the best prices. Today, four of Europe’s biggest coffee companies (Tchibo, J. J. Darboven, Neumann Gruppe, H. C. Rohde) are still based in the city – the city even boasts the International Coffee Plaza in the HafenCity district with its own giant coffee bean sculpture. It should also briefly be mentioned that, when it wasn’t exporting materials, it exported its own men and women. In the 19th century, it was residents of Hamburg who took their local delicacy – seasoned minced meat patties – to New York as they emigrated. And the US hamburger was born. Back in Hamburg itself, however, they had to find a way to handle the huge boom in exports that its trading connections required. Accordingly, the city built the world’s largest complex of warehouses. Set on timber pile foundations by the water’s edge, they allowed seamless loading and unloading of goods. Known as the Speicherstadt (City of Warehouses). These were the focus of heavy Allied bombing during the Second World War for obvious reasons - but were later rebuilt and today house a mix of commerical, residential and retail areas. Today the shipping legacy lives on in Hapag-Lloyd – one of the world’s biggest container shipping lines that still proudly calls Hamburg home. The football team’s badge then – to truly #GetTheBadgeIn – is based on a stylised version of the “Blue Peter” signal flag a ship would fly shortly before casting off. It literally means “ready to sail”. Or, as Gen X might shout down his online gaming mic, “Let’s goooooo”. So there we have it. Hamburg SV. A sleeping giant of a football club representing the logistical and shipping giants of Europe. And as the club has just been promoted again to the big leagues, they can wear their badge in its truest meaning – they are indeed ready to sail once more.

This is a glorious badge, for a club representing a town with a glorious past. Did Darlington build the modern world single-handedly? If they didn’t, they gave it a damn good go. So, let’s do the National League North outfit the honour and #GetTheBadgeIn. Firstly. The team. The club. The Darlos. Founded in 1883, they initially played in local leagues until becoming one of the founding members of the Third Division North in 1921. In 1925, they won that league and were promoted to the Second Division of English football (today's Championship), where they finished 15th in 1926 — which remains the highest league position they’ve held. But that isn’t to say they've done nothing for the last century. They have numerous league titles, a League Cup quarter-final appearance, and won the FA Trophy in 2011. During the 2010s, the club fell into administration after taking on too much debt as they moved to a modern, all-seater 25,000-capacity stadium. Alas, the bankruptcy cost them their league place, and they fell to the ninth tier before fighting their way back up to the National League North (and having to argue the point to get their name back!). So that's the club — a once-regular EFL name that went bust and has had to claw its way back, showing much grit and determination along the way. Two attributes the town has demonstrated through its history — which leads us nicely back to that fantastic badge. Let's begin with the top. The Quaker hat. Iconic. Worn by that feller who sells oats — and not too dissimilar to those worn by the pilgrims who sailed to America (think: Thanksgiving). So, who, or what, actually are the Quakers? And what do they have to do with Darlington? Quakers, otherwise known as the Religious Society of Friends, were a protest movement against the established church. They believed that anyone could connect with God, and that all it took was faith, prayer, and Bible study. You didn't need fancy church buildings or hierarchies of bishops and priests in expensive silks mooching about the place — you could be a good Christian with nothing but the clothes on your back. Quaker meeting houses (their churches) are completely plain — simple benches and whitewashed walls — anything else was a waste or a distraction for the higher purpose (this picture is of inside the Darlington Meeting House. They don’t even need a meeting house at all, and many groups hire space or meet outdoors (weather allowing, one presumes). This disturbingly pious and principled behaviour put the willies up the rest of the Church establishment, and they were persecuted as a result. Laws were passed banning them from universities and government jobs. They were forced out, and many moved to the USA — where William Penn, probably their most famous emigrant, founded Pennsylvania (after himself — which was not very Quakerish, to be fair). However — and here is the irony whenever anyone persecutes and excludes a minority — they often end up doing rather well in the areas left open to them. Banned from government and the church (two traditionally lucrative areas in the Medieval/Early Modern era), these Quakers — who had their homeland in the East and Northeast of England, with a large cluster in Darlington — diverted their energies into trade and industry. And they did exceptionally well. They formed a close network across the nation, willing to help each other out and lend money. Their ethos of trust and honour made them famously good business partners. Their commitment to plain living meant they saved an absolute fortune — and had plenty left over to invest in business opportunities. And this is where the Darlington FC badge crosses from the Quaker's hat to the railroad — and it does so with the aid of one particular local Quaker family: the Peases. Starting as humble wool merchants, the family quickly emerged as one of the wealthiest in the area. When they formed a bank, this wealth multiplied. They became some of the most influential investors in the region. Magnificent halls, art galleries, and bridges were built in and around the town. They also involved themselves in local politics, and many family members became MPs and important abolitionists against the slave trade. Then, in 1818, came the meeting between Edward Pease and Scottish railroad engineer Robert Stephenson (associated with The Rocket, one of the earliest successful steam locomotives). The problem being solved was how to get Durham's vast quantities of coal from the interior to the coast for export. Stephenson believed a railway would be perfect — Pease backed him. The Stockton and Darlington Railway Company was formed, with two-thirds of the shares sold to local Quakers and the rest to Quakers further afield. This technology would go on to change the world – and make the local Quakers richer still. Darlington FC released a third kit this year which had the map of this railway etched onto it (I've only just discovered it — otherwise I’d have bought one instantly). The railway would go on not just to transport coal, but to operate the first passenger steam train service in the world. Edward Pease's son took the next step and expanded the railway to a small farm he had bought on the coast, with the intention of turning it into a port. Its intended name was Port Darlington. It later took on the name of the nearby settlement: Middlesbrough. So there we have it. The Quaker hat and the steam train. Two halves of a shield, but very closely related. Darlington FC — I dare any team to carry more revolutionary history on its crest as they take to the pitch. Darlington — the cradle of the railways, forger of the modern world, and home to a sleeping EFL giant. History isn’t done with Darlington yet.