Football Club Logos as a Tool of Cultural Promotion and Transmission

Abstract

Football, which has a history dating back to ancient times and carries meanings far beyond being an amateur entertainment tool today, is a field that should be evaluated socio-culturally beyond being a mere sport in terms of affecting world cultures and bringing all local cultures to the world through the media. Football and the culture around it, which social scientists can deal with in different contexts, draws the attention of researchers. The origins of football in Türkiye dates back to the Ottoman period and after traces of a long process. After the clubs established by non-Muslims, school teams and military teams football descends into the neighborhoods. While interest in football is increasing, it is seen that this interest is interrupted from time to time due to wars. With the proclamation of the Republic, sports became important to the state in relation to physical training. The state, which uses sports as a tool to create a healthy nation, has prioritized health sports, and team sports such as football had not been so popular. Even if the leagues were established, it took a long time to establish the national league. In the 1960s, football became professional and the state started to encourage both clubs and football players. Sportsmanship is now seen as a profession and the rights of clubs and football players are guaranteed. As a result of these incentives, the number of local clubs has increased. Especially after the state's request that "every city should have a club", many clubs in the cities united and a single team was established to represent that city in the national league. The field of football plays a successful role in bringing local cultures to the nation. For this reason, football clubs have chosen to take advantage of this power of football. When local clubs discovered that they could show themselves in the national arena, they began to look for badges and logos. In this study, the emblems of football clubs competing in Turkish leagues were examined. Arms have a very important place in creating a brand. Considering that sports clubs are also companies, it will be seen that a high quality and unique emblem is necessary. Crests and jerseys are rare visual fields of football clubs. That's why they can use these areas successfully and be different by capturing originality. In the study, fifty club crests were examined and evaluated from the point of view of folklore. It has been determined that teams generally prefer cliché designs. The few local motifs identified have much in common. Local values are represented in several different ways in football club coats of arms: Mythological elements, city images, local productions, geographical forms, historical developments, etc. In this study, the cultural values that football clubs prefer to use in their coat of arms were identified and the relationship between city recognition and football club was examined through these elements. Examples from world clubs have been given and similar uses in Türkiye have been identified. Looking at the historical process, it is seen that the football industry in Türkiye was not created with an urban perception, but with a focus on sportive success. Therefore, it was also discussed whether there is a perception that the clubs can also be the means of visibility of the cities in the national level. In the study, it has been tried to understand what/for what reason the clubs that prefer urban elements in their coat of arms prefer. It has been discussed whether it provides the identification of that city with the urban elements used in the coat of arms through the football team. It has been examined which city images and how they used the emblems in question. The study focuses only on football club crests. Examples are selected from Turkish football leagues. Considering that the cities where the football clubs were founded are promotional tools in the national and international arena, suggestions were made after evaluating the diversity of the emblem designs and their local allusions.