Italian Football Federation Introduces New Institutional Logo; Will Not Replace National Team Crest

The body overseeing soccer competitions in Italy, the Federazione Italiana Giuoco Calcio (FIGC), has unveiled a new logo, but fans watching Italian national team games likely won’t notice a difference.

The FIGC introduced the new logo on Monday during an event at the Garage Italia in Milan. This is an “institutional logo,” meaning it won’t replace the national team crest that Azzurri teams wear on their jerseys.

*Left: The new FIGC institutional logo (courtesy **FIGC.it**).*
*Right: The Italian national team crest (courtesy **Wikipedia**).*

According to the FIGC, the new logo is inspired by the construction and design of footballs in the early 20th century, with the colours of the Italian flag worked in. The four stars represent the country’s four World Cup titles (1934, 1938, 1982, 2006).

Video courtesy FIGC.it

“The winning national team on the field has a great team that supports them off the pitch, characterized by the same passion and professionalism with which the Azzurri have faced the European matches,” FIGC president Gabriele Gravina said in an announcement on the federation’s website (translated into English by Google). “Today, we give this extraordinary team, and the entire federal organization, a new symbol to identify with, which moves from our tradition to project the Football Association towards the challenges of the future.”

The announcement notes that other European nations have different national team crests and the football federation logos, including Spain (team crest, federation logo) and Germany (team crest, federation logo).

“Designing the FIGC logo is a source of extreme pride and happiness for me,” said Lapo Elkann, president of Independent Ideas, the agency that designed the new federation logo. “As an Italian, there is nothing that can make me more proud.”