Coventry City Football Club, known as the Sky Blues, carries a crest built around the civic heraldry of the city of Coventry. The club’s badge is a shield-style design featuring an elephant carrying a castle, flanked by an eagle and a phoenix, with the club’s name displayed on scrolls.
Design and History
The current crest was created in 1972 and first appeared on team shirts in 1983. It incorporates the elephant, which also features on the crest of the City of Coventry, and a phoenix, which represents the city rising from the ashes of the Second World War.[1]
In January 2005, the club unveiled a new badge to coincide with its move to the Ricoh Arena. The proposed design adopted a modern shield format but was immediately criticised by supporters, who branded it “tacky, simplistic and will date rapidly” and “an embarrassment.”[2] Within days, fan pressure led the board to scrap the new design and retain the traditional crest.[1]
For the 2011/12 season, Coventry City introduced a one-season special crest on home shirts. The design featured the elephant and castle standing on a football, an accurate reproduction of a crest used in matchday programmes of the 1960s that had not previously appeared on a shirt. The club described the idea as paying homage to the club’s heritage, and the traditional crest continued to be used on away shirts and merchandise.[3]
Meaning and Symbolism
The club’s official kit announcements describe the crest’s key elements. The elephant, displayed on the crest and also on the City’s coat of arms, appears alongside the mythical phoenix bird, a symbol of Coventry’s rise from the ashes of fire and rebuilding after World War II. The eagle is also shown and is described as a symbol from Coventry’s distant past, being the emblem of Lady Godiva’s husband.[4]
The club’s crest is trademarked, meaning the club holds exclusive rights to its use.[5]
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