Euro 2008 Emblems of the Final Four |
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Another look at the semifinalists, this time through the lens of their official emblems. If you've spent any time on Albion Road you've surely seen many, many club logos/emblems/crests/whatever you want to call them. I always find it really interesting to examine the symbolism in these, it can lead me down some unexpected and interesting historical paths. And many are just plain great to look at. You can see the emblems of Germany, Turkey, Russia and Spain below along with a little description from me. These aren't the most dynamic of emblems unfortunately but I think they do all have their positives. Share your thoughts below. If you had to pick the Euro 2008 winner based on best emblem, who would it be?
The emblem of the German soccer association (officially the Deutscher Fussball-Bund) is a pretty simple affair - just the initials in a stylized and slightly weird combination of white on green, in a circle with the national colors of black, red and gold at the bottom. What's interesting here is the green. Why is green in the colors and why is green typically the alternate color for the German national football team? After World War II the newly-created West German team unsurprisingly had quite a bit of difficulty finding any opponents. The first opposing national team to agree to an official match was the Republic of Ireland. As a sign of gratitude they have have forever after utilized green as their alternate shirt and, as you can see, is currently using it in the emblem of the German FA.
Turkey come in with something equally straightforward - a shield divided diagonally in half with the Turkish flag at the top and a soccer ball and the year 1923, the foundation of the Turkish FA, the Türkiye Futbol Federasyonu. The red and white flag of Turkey evolved from that of the Ottoman Empire. The star and crescent are a symbol of Islam.
Now Russia have something a little more complicated, don't they? We have a red, white and blue soccer ball at the bottom, those colors being the colors of the Russian flag. We have the name of the Russian FA at the bottom - if you're keeping score it's the Российский Футбольный Союз in Russian. And at the top we have a golden two-headed eagle at the top. The two-headed eagle is part of the coat of arms of Russia and dates back to the time of the Russian Empire. It was adopted by 15th century czar Ivan the Great after his marriage to a Byzantine princess. The two-headed eagle had long been the symbol of the Byzantine Empire and is a common theme in club emblems and national and regional coat of arms through Southern and Eastern Europe.
The Spanish emblem is a rather strange, arty thing that I'm struggling to make heads or tails of. All I can give is that it's in the shape of a football, includes the black and white of a ball and the red and yellow of Spain and a crown in the upper right to symbolize the federation's royal patronage. |
