Borussia Dortmund to Add Colour-Contrasting Crest to Champions League Kits

After backlash from supporters and an apology from Puma’s CEO, German Bundesliga club Borussia Dortmund will indeed have a visible club crest on the front of their jerseys in the UEFA Champions League starting this Tuesday.

In their first Champions League against Besiktas match two weeks ago, Dortmund debuted a new neon yellow third kit with two horizontal stripes and “BVB 09” spelled out across the chest in black. It featured the same template that Puma used for 10 other high-profile European clubs. The club crest was visible — but just barely — as a pattern down the front of the shirt and embossed in its usual spot on the left chest.

*Borussia Dortmund’s Champions League home kit as it appeared in a match vs Besiktas on Sept. 15. (Photo courtesy **BVB.de**)*

Supporters were outraged at the lack of a visible club crest on the front of the shirt, and vented their anger on social media. This prompted Puma CEO Bjørn Gulden to apologize via German news agency Deutsche Presse-Agentur.

“We regret the fans’ anger and would like to apologise to them,” Gulden said. “The fans’ criticism relates to the fact that the BVB logo is merely incorporated into the material tone-on-tone several times, as well as embossed on the chest of the jersey in a larger size, but is just not clearly highlighted as the club crest.”

“We have really taken the feedback to heart and will take it into account for future jerseys – just as we have done in the past.”

PUMA apologized after Dortmund fans complained about the visibility of the badge on their new cup kit 😳 pic.twitter.com/StkfuKbxkK
— B/R Football (@brfootball) September 17, 2021

Well, it appears Gulden was true to his word. BVB announced on their website Saturday that, starting with Tuesday’s match against Sporting Lisbon, their Champions League kits will have “a color-contrasting club crest on the shirt front.”

“BVB had the original jersey, which was criticized by many fans because there was no club emblem on the shirt front, changed during the summer as part of UEFA regulations and had a transparent logo stamped on it, among other things,” the club statement goes on to say (translated into English by Google).

“Many fans complained about the 2-1 away win at the beginning of the premier class at Besiktas Istanbul, however, the lack of visibility of the BVB logo. Borussia Dortmund then contacted UEFA and tried to get approval for a color-contrasting version of the logo. The European Football Association complied with this request on Friday afternoon.”

Being a kit for European competition, the crest on the front does not include the two stars that normally appear above it in Bundesliga play, as those represent their six Bundesliga championships. Those stars do still appear, however, on the crest on the back collar of the shirt.