A season without celebratory patches awaits us

Last week the Governing Council of Ligue 1 decided - due to Coronavirus - to assign the championship victory without waiting for the conclusion of the second round and Paris Saint Germain - who at the time of the stop was first in the standings with an advantage of 12 points on Marseille and a match to be recovered - he automatically became champion of France for the third consecutive year. Title that they have exhibited in the last two seasons through a badge on the right sleeve of the shirt and which has undergone a restyling in the last year, passed from the shape of a shield to that of a hexagon. The "patch" is personalized as it shows the name of the winning team around the Ligue 1 symbol, in addition to the year in which the trophy was won and represents a universal symbol of power and supremacy conquered on the field; but despite the controversial season finale, is it right to propose it again on the sleeves of the Parisians next year?

It will certainly miss the shirts of the next season of the Eredivisie: the Dutch Football Association has in fact decided to suspend the championship, but not to assign anyone the title of winner. In Holland all teams wear an inverted blue pentagon-shaped patch on the right sleeve with the Eredivisie logo, except for the reigning champions, whose badge is golden: easy to imagine that they will all be the same next year color.

Who already felt sewn on the shirt the "patch of the champion" is certainly Liverpool. The triumphant cavalcade of men Klopp has already de facto the Reds crowned champions of England, but in the Premier League is still discussing the date of shooting of training to complete the season. Whether the championship goes all the way or not, there is little doubt that the patch of champion of England, a golden circle with the iconic crowned lion in the center (this too a "sleeve badge" to be affixed on the sleeve) will decorate the Salah and team mates for next season. This patch was also recently modified: the "scratch" effect disappeared from the background and the word "Premier League" disappeared.

The ornaments of the historic Liverpool red jersey had already been a topic of debate in December, when with a 1-0 in extra time against Flamengo Klopp's men won the title of Fifa world champions. On that occasion, a spokesman for the World Federation declared that "the winning team can wear the FIFA World Champions badge from the day it becomes champion until the final of the next edition of the same tournament", but the Premier League opposed it, not allowing to expose the patch in league matches. Fifa also explained that "the badge can only be used on the shirt of the current official team. This means that the FIFA World Champions badge cannot be used on previous historical versions of the team shirts, training shirts, tracksuits, training tops or any other product".

The golden shield with the world cup in the center should evoke sweet memories of the Italians: introduced in 2007, it was worn for the first time by our national team after the 2006 World Cup victory. As for the white shield that represents the champion team d Europe, on the other hand, will remain on the Portuguese jersey until next year, given the slippage of Euro 2020.

Since the 2000/01 season, UEFA has also instituted the "badge of honor" for all those teams that have been able to win three consecutive tournaments or at least five in all. This coat of arms, initially blue in color and which has become silver since 2012, consists of a stamp depicting the cup with large stylized ears with the Champions League (and Cups) number won, and is placed on the left sleeve of the official uniform. Of the six teams that wear it (Ajax, Real Madrid, Milan, Liverpool, Barcelona and Bayern Munich) the Dutch are the only ones who have not yet won 5 editions of the tournament, but have managed to bring home three editions in a row between 1971 and 1973.

In Italy the tricolor "scudetto" has stood for Juventus for 8 years now. The fate of the Serie A has not yet been decided, even if the latest releases of the Minister of Sport Spadafora open the possibility of a definitive stop of the championship. At that point it would be difficult to hypothesize the assignment of the title to the bianconeri, with only one point ahead of Lazio in the standings. The fate of the tricolor shield, invented in February 1920 by Gabriele D'Annunzio who had it sewn on the shirts of the Italian military, instead of the Savoy shield, is still uncertain. Four years later, in 1924, the organizers of the Italian football championship established that the tricolor would adorn the uniforms of the team that had won the title of Italian champion every year, in order to represent national unity in football. The first club to play with the tricolor shield on the chest was Genoa, in 1925, and it was very different from the shape with which it appears today: it was surmounted by the Savoy crown and, in the center of the shield, in the white area, there was a white cross on red background.

Only another Italian shirt has gone down in history as much as that of Genoa for its decorations: it is that of Inter Milan post-triplete, the year in which they discussed how to arrange the various patches that testified to the victory of the Championship, Italian Cup , Champions League and Club World Cup. In the end, the Nerazzurri opted for the cockade and the tricolor over Nike's "swoosh", with the golden shield in the center and the Champions patch on the sleeve.