Premier League will get rid of lion as part of rebrand

Ever since the top 20 English soccer clubs broke away from the Football League to form the Premier League for the 1992-93 season, the world’s most popular soccer league has had a blue lion as the face of its brand. It makes sense considering that the English National Team and the FA’s crest included the famous Three Lions crest, so naturally the top level of English soccer would have a lion for a logo as well.

The inaugural Premier League logo

Unfortunately for our blue friend, it appears that the lion’s reign of being the face of the Premier League is coming to an end. As part of a rebrand that will include having no corporate sponsorship in the league’s name (which means that instead of officially being known as the Barclays Premier League, they’ll just be going by the moniker of Premier League), the league is going to drop the lion.

Here’s the news from The Daily Mail:

Despite having a successful image globally, they are planning an overhaul to maximise having a clean brand with no title sponsor next season. Instead of long-time backers Barclays, the richest league in the world can afford to have a roster of secondary rights partners.
A creative agency will be appointed after a tender this month, with the brief to link all the PL’s various work under the new branding. And the dated logo, based on the original tie-up with the FA’s three lions, is going to be culled.

This will be the final season for the Premier League lion

There’s no word yet on what the league has in store for a new logo — all we know for now is that the lion will be gone. Personally, I think it’s a shame. Like I expalined above, the lion and English soccer seem to go hand-in-hand, so it’s a bummer to see that they’ll be dropping the royal feline for something else. Either way, it’ll be interesting to see what they come up with as a replacement.

What do you make of this? Do you think that the Premier League should keep the lion?