The ugly side of football?

With the mens Euro 2024 football tournament well underway and our respective hopes and dreams resting on the shoulders (or boots) of our nation’s best and brightest, I thought it would interesting to take a look at the tournament from a graphic design perspective i.e. the branding. 

The visual identity for a major sporting event has been known to cause controversy in the past - anyone remember the furore that greeted the unveiling of the London 2012 Olympics logo? 

On first impression though, I think the 2024 footballing equivalent, which was actually revealed in Berlin 3 years ago,  is unlikely to elicit a similar reaction as it’s well…how can I put this? a bit bland? uninspiring? boring!?

Sure it’s colourful which I agree doesn’t normally say dull or uninteresting but come on, this is football! A game that raises the pulse, gets the heart pumping, makes you shout, scream, cry, laugh, jump up and down, hold your head in your hands with despair and hug a complete stranger at the sound of the final whistle, so surely this image should reflect that in some way. Shouldn’t it?

Let’s look at the logo in a little detail:

The centre is taken up with the shape of the trophy which is grey/silver in colour and has a 3D effect which I REALLY disliked at first as I felt it looked dated but have to admit is growing on me as the tournament progresses. The colour choice here doesn’t do anything to raise the excitement levels but I except that it needed to sit well with multi coloured outer - would a negative space effect have worked better, look more contemporary?

The outer shape brings together the colours of the participating nations and helps give a sense of unity but the shape itself is odd being an irregular ellipse and as a result doesn’t sit well with other elements. The shape and the logo as whole works better when used on a white background but this seems to be a secondary treatment with the preferred option being the brand blue. 

I think the most lacklustre aspect of this design is the typography. Again it’s uninspiring. I’m not suggesting that it needs to be a jazzy hand drawn affair or even an ultramodern fashion statement. but surely there were other options available. The barely discernible weight difference between the name and date looks like a mistake rather than a creative decision and the ‘cuts’ in the letter O and number 4 look like an after thought and an attempt ‘liven’ things up.

With a summer packed full of sport it’s will be interesting to see how the Olympics and Paralympics compare visually and whether they manage reflects the nature and the passion of their respective events. 

Ultimately, I accept it’s the goals, the finger tip saves, the dodgy refereeing decisions, VAR, red cards and the penalty shootouts that people will remember from this tournament but is it too much to ask that branding be a 30 yard screamer rather than this disappointing own goal? 

Any thoughts designers? Football fans?