06/01/2008
Futsal Column by Damon Shaw (Middlesbrough Futsal Club)

Middlesbrough Futsal Club
Courtesy: Gazette Live

The not-so-great chest band debate

Firstly: Happy New Year everyone. I hope you’ve all had a good rest and are fully charged for 2008. I had a few days at home with friends and family over the Christmas period, but I found it hard to stop thinking about the massive year we have coming up and in the end couldn’t wait to get back to Middlesbrough and get cracking on with the various things we have planned.

One thing that has caught my eye on the internet in the last week or so is the debate about the chest band on Middlesbrough’s kit. ‘Should Middlesbrough bring back the white chest band or stay with the current all red strip?’ I thought it was good of the club to act on a campaign, which I think, correct me if I’m wrong, started on facebook. I, for one, was invited to the group and with no hesitation joined because I think it is a good, honest campaign by the fans to influence the club they support. It was interesting to read so many people’s opinions on the chest band. Most people seem to think that it is a great idea and Boro should adopt the white band as a permanent fixture on the home kit, which was first introduced by Jack Charlton in the 70s, when, I believe, he led Boro to the second division [Coca-cola championship now for you young’uns!] title. One opinion I read points out that only Stuttgart and Boca Juniors have a chest band on their kit regularly. How synonymous is that blue kit with a yellow band across the chest with Boca Juniors? Everybody in world football associates the two, and I think that is what Boro should strive for: a globally recognised icon that is their own.

When I decided that setting up Middlesbrough Futsal Club was a good idea, I had to choose a colour for club, amongst other, seemingly less trivial things. I thought it was incredibly important to choose a colour that meant something, that had a history, and not just my favourite colour. Obviously my first point of reference was Middlesbrough Football Club, but before I dived in and chose red as Boro Futsal’s colours, I had to know where the red that is now without doubt Middlesbrough FC’s colour came from. If you know me, you will know that I can’t just accept something… I have to know how it works, or where it comes from or why… I couldn’t find any real reason why Middlesbrough FC played in red. I asked Middlesbrough Council. I asked Boro fans. I asked people who had lived in Boro all their life, and nobody could tell me. So, with no real reason to choose red, other than to ‘copy’ off the football team, I just couldn’t go with a red strip.

Instead, I looked to the history of the town. The Middlesbrough Civic crest was the only real imagery, or identity that I could find, with any historical value anyway. I didn’t want to base our club’s colours/crest on the ‘Middlesbrough Moving Forward’ logo, as we’d end up with a blue and orange kit with a very bland badge! No offence to the Council, who I think are doing a great job on the town! So, it became apparent that the blue lion with the red claws was the original town symbol and a great one to base our club’s colours on, and the blue and red of Boro Futsal was born!

Now, having gone that far, ‘should we use the town crest as the club’s crest?’ was the next decision. It would create an image that we are a team representing Middlesbrough and would instil a sense of pride in the club and the heritage of the town. But would it generate interest in the club? Would we attract support? Would we be able to tap into Middlesbrough Football Club’s reputation and fan base? The answer to all the above is; no. The Boro Futsal Crest, which uses the lion from the civic crest at least, is heavily based on that of the now old Middlesbrough badge. My first concern was breaking copyright laws, but then when I thought about it… can you really copyright a pair of concentric circles?! Besides, I’d written to Steve Gibson looking for support, so he must have seen the logo, and if there was potentially a problem, I’m sure he would have let me know… or maybe that was the reason for their change of badge…


Using a badge that looked like an already well-known badge definitely paid off. It gave us a head start in attracting a sponsor, gave us a look of professionalism and attracted interest from Boro fans. During the summer I would wear one of our strips fairly often and I think I found out what it’s like to be a woman with ample cleavage! Walking through a crowd with the Boro Futsal top on, a new and previously unseen ‘Boro kit’, left me the target of stares, while passers by tried to figure out what team I was supporting, or if I had discovered the new Boro kit! The biggest success of looking like Middlesbrough FC came last summer when we were invited to Portugal to play the likes of FC Barcelona and Benfica. Speaking to the organisers of the tour it was clear that they wanted to sell the matches to the public. With us looking like a Premier League team people would show an interest. Have a look at this goal:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-10EN5WS6VA&feature=related

Route one at its finest!

Well I’ve waffled on enough about kits and badges and it’s been FA Cup 3rd Round weekend!!! What’s going on?! The only game I saw was the Aston Villa vs. Man United game. I love watching Anderson play. He’s clearly come from a futsal background and has great vision, a great touch and gets stuck in. As for Boro, an away win is pleasing and it’s good to see our president getting on the score sheet for the second time since he signed! If you didn’t see the news, it’s on www.BoroFutsal.co.uk and is somewhere on the Gazette live website if you have a look. It even made news on a French futsal website, so it’s already raised our profile a little!

Well, it’s getting late on Sunday night and this week is going to be a busy one as I have a birthday to plan. Feel free to email me any questions you have about the club or futsal and I’ll publish them in two weeks, my email address is damon@borofutsal.co.uk. I’ll tell you what; I’ll give you an incentive. Every question I receive before 21st January (the date I’ll next write something), will receive two VIP tickets to our first birthday bash! See our website for details.

See you in two weeks!

Damon


Italian & International Futsal Yearbook - Season 2007/2008


Posted by Luca Ranocchiari --> luca.ranocchiari@futsalplanet.com


 


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