Football clubs use their badges for all sorts of reasons. Some like to keep things nice and simple in order to represent the club as best as possible. Others like to introduce other aspects to the badge so as to link the club to the city it is based in or as to reflect the supporters. In the case of Manchester City, the badge hasn’t changed much over the years. The club has worked to keep it in line with what came before throughout most of its history, only really making adjustments in small ways when it was deemed necessary.
When Man City Were St. Mark’s
As is so often the case, you need to look at a football club’s history if you want to have a sense of where they have come from. In the case of Manchester City, the club was formed as St, Mark’s (West Gorton) in 1880. That remained the case for the seven years that followed, with the badge at the time being a white cross Pattee, sitting on top of a black background. The cross, of course, is a standard Christian symbol, demonstrating the newly formed football club’s link to the church, as well as the ideas of sacrifice and salvation.
In 1887, the club changed its name to Ardwick Association Football Club, essentially removing the reference to the cross that had been such an important part of the club’s more formative years. The shift to the new name also saw the badge being altered, bringing in a traditional crest appearance with a colour palette of white and light blue. The crest was divided into four equal segments, with the top two bearing the letters A and A to represent Ardwick Association, whilst the bottom two were F and C for Football Club.
Becoming Manchester City
It was in 1894 that Ardwick Association decided to change their name in order to become Manchester City. When that happened, a decision was taken to change the club’s badge in order to tie-in the links to the city after which it was named. Consequently, the city’s Coat of Arms was put into the badge, being composed of an orange shield that boasted three oblique lines of yellow. The upper part showed a clipper against a white sky, sailing upon a blue sea, whilst the shield itself appeared to be sitting on some green grass.
The shield was being held by a white deer on the lefthand side and a golden lion on the right. There were curvy orange and yellow vignettes on the top with a helmet, as well as a globe in the club’s pale blue and pink, upon which sat seven bees.
Whilst City fans in the modern era won’t wish to hear it, the badge was similar in nature to what Manchester United used during the club’s more formative years. At the bottom of the crest was a white ribbon, upon which were the words ‘CONCILIO ET LABORE’, written in black, which is Manchester’s motto and means ‘Wisdom and Effort’.
A More Contemporary Look
In the 1960s, the club introduced a revolutionary new look to its badge that would happen to shape what the club’s badge looked like moving forwards. The orange and yellow shield from the Coat of Arms were kept and enlarged, placed on a light blue background, which helped to draw attention to the ship that was representative of Manchester’s trade links and also the Manchester Ship Canal, an introduction that completely changed the fortunes of the city. There were also three yellow stripes, which represented the city’s three rivers of the Irwell, the Irk and the Medlock.
Surrounding the shield was a thin black circle and a thicker white one, upon which were written the words ‘MANCHESTER CITY F.C.’ in black. In the 1970s came a tweak on that same formula, with the white circle changed to a sky blue and the words ‘MANCHESTER CITY F.C. in yellow. The clipper remained in place but was made larger, this time sitting upon yellow waves. The shield was on a white background, with the yellow lines looking to be on a pink background and made much bigger than they were previously.
The Start of the Modern Looking Badge
In 1972, a badge was introduced that might well be considered more recognisable as the modern day Manchester City badge to those who saw it. It brought with it the Lancashire Red Rose, sitting underneath the clipper within the shield on a white background, whilst the clipper remained in yellow and was on a sky blue background. That was within a circle, which maintained the sky blue until it reached a thin black circle, coming before a thick white circle containing the words ‘MANCHESTER CITY F.C.’ and then another thin black circle.
Between 1976 and 1981 the club briefly reverted back to using the original Manchester City badge, then in 1981 the 1972 badge was brought back with a slightly new colour palette. The sky blue was replaced by a more royal blue look, whilst the shield had blue and white shades that made it pop. The Red Rose representing Lancashire was still there, as were the words ‘MANCHESTER CITY F.C.’ in black on a white circle. This was the badge that was used for the longest period of time in the club’s history, remaining in use until 1997.
Bringing in an Eagle & Some Stars
The club’s most radical redesign of its badge since the moment it abandoned the Manchester Coat of Arms came in in 1997. After allegation of copyright infringement were brought in, City chose to go in a completely different direction with the badge. The crest was still there, this time with the clipper in yellow and the letters ‘M.C.F.C.’, also in yellow, on a black background. The clipper and letters sat within a shield shape, that had a sky blue colour and three white lines representing the three rivers of Manchester on the bottom half.
It wasn’t the crest that was unique, nor the Latin words ‘Superbia In Proelio’, meaning Pride in Battle, given that there had been a Latin phrase on the badge previously. No, what made the badge stand out was the huge yellow eagle, with wings spread, seemingly protecting the badge. The eagle, which was looking off to the left with its tongue out, was used to represent Manchester’s links to the aerospace industry. Above both the eagle and the crest were three yellow and black stars, representing nothing in particular put there for decoration.
The Modern Badge
In 2016, Manchester City decided to launch a new-look badge in order to coincide with the sports-washing era in the wake of the club’s takeover by Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the Vice President of the United Arab Emirates. He had bought the club eight years earlier in an attempt to sports-wash the reputation of the U.A.E., slowly but surely introducing changes to the club that included the introduction of the new badge. It was one that went back to the previous look of the badge, largely thanks to the fact that it was round in nature.
New City badge lights up Manchester! #mcfc pic.twitter.com/WFu6lDpaIy
— Manchester City (@ManCity) June 30, 2016
It was confirmed that a new badge would be introduced in the October of 2015, with Manchester City working in consultation with supporters in order to ensure that they would be pleased with the badge. It was revealed ahead of the club’s Boxing Day game against Sunderland, with a central circle showing a shield that contained the clipper in yellow on a white background. Underneath on the bottom half of the shield were the three lines representing Manchester’s three rivers, being in sky blue next to a darker blue look.
On top of the three lines, the Red Rose of Lancashire was brought back, in spite of the fact that there is some debate about whether Manchester is even entirely in Lancashire. The circle that the shield sat upon was sky blue, surrounded by thin white and black lines before a large white circle. In dark blue at the top of the circle was the word ‘MANCHESTER’, with ‘CITY’ appearing at the bottom of the circle and the number ’18’ on one side and ’94’ on the other, representing the year that the club was formed, surrounded by two darker blue circles.