Juventus' new crest shows football is purely a business not a game.

Juventus' old badge in comparison to the new modern look.

Last night, Juventus unveiled at one of their high profile black and white and more events the future club crest which will stand for Juve in future seasons. Nothing about this new crest says to me that it represents the second longest running football club in Italy and neither does it say the most successful Italian side of all time If anything it feels like one of the lower clubs trying to modernise and attract new supporters and it's confused me beyond belief.

In case you missed it, The Old lady, as they've come to be known, announced a couple of months ago about a rebranding of the club to take Juventus into the future of football. Part of this rebranding would be the high profile and exotic Black and White and More events, how exciting. I kept an eye on it from across the internet in my University room just so I could see how Juventus would take themselves forwards. After showing off promotional footage which looked like it deserved to be at Comicon for a C-rated Superhero movie with it's awful over the top narrator. They unveiled the new "Logo" and I put emphasis on Logo. Juve no longer wants it to be referred to as a badge clearly, throughout the event and the discussion of it on Twitter and across the web they constantly refer back to it as a Logo, not a crest. I am sorry but for me, my club's crest is not a logo, a crest represents a football club and a logo represents a business. Which takes me to my point, this rebranding is far bigger than we all imagined. Juventus is no longer just the biggest football club in Italy, it has surpassed that. It wants to become the brand of Italy and the business of Italy.

Realistically, none of this is surprising and to be fair to Agnelli (Juventus Club president or CEO whatever) he stated from the day these events were announced that this rebranding is to make Juventus' business sector far larger than ever before. With the way football is heading, having to compete with the wages that China can offer, Europe's top clubs have to be able to boost their finances in some way to make sure they can sustain competing with the orient and not collapse financially. Juventus have made a smart business move in broadening their horizons and making Juventus far bigger than the stadium, a training complex and a squad of players. Agnelli plans to make Juventus THE footballing brand. A brand that will be connected in any way possible shown by these black and white and more events which each take on different targets and personas. Last nights was aimed at how it will affect the club directly at first glance, hence the unveiling of the new JD sports insignia in Milan. The next few events will discuss taking Juventus forward on an electronic scale, a digital scale and then even further on a physical scale. I don't necessarily think there is anything wrong with that, what I take issue with is the idea that Juventus keeps talking about the new crest as a logo and discussing how big they want to make the Juventus as a brand and how they can make Juventus the go to for sporting wear and even regular clothing, but where does the team fall into this brand?

We've been discussing how the game has been becoming a business for years now and that eventually, owners won't even care about the teams' actual success, caring more about their financial success. Arsenal being the best example in Britain. After moving to the Emirates, Arsenal had to enter a period where they had to be far more financially prudent in regards to transfers and wages. Wenger was fantastic during this period and this is probably why he still has such weight around the club (along with his success he has had) but this financial mindset has stayed inside the Arsenal board, or more predominantly the majority shareholder. It would appear that the powers that be inside Arsenal care more for finishing in Europe purely on financial grounds and not for the club's success. They have the foundation to be one of the best sides in England if they pushed, instead they seem content with how they work currently. Whilst Juventus have had the success to appease their fans, it would seem that they are now going down a route which on the first layer looks to be in support of the club's footballing future, if you look a bit deeper it would seem that it is quite the opposite. 

The whole rebranding move screams business and not football. On a business level Juventus probably are one of the best teams to take this step and if you look at it, not from a footballing perspective, only one or two clubs could have a better foundation to do so. The head of Interbrand, the group who helped organise and structure the rebranding, stated "If there is one club capable of taking that step, it’s Juventus – the brand is synonymous with ambition and excellence and these are principles that can inspire truly unique experiences. The new visual identity has been designed to boldly take the club’s spirit into new, unexpected realms". Even though Juventus are one of the best clubs to take this step into the business world, it is a surprising one for me. They have one of the best fanbases worldwide, and yet this move into unexpected realms will surely lead to a distancing between the club and the fans. This business reboot of Juventus wouldn't have shocked me if someone like Real Madrid or Barcelona had taken that step before them, instead, Juve has made the jump from one of the elite prestigious clubs in Europe to the next brand in sports business. I can't see it stopping there, though, now Juve has done it, I feel that Real, Barca, Bayern and even clubs like United or City taking the step away from sporting club to sporting business.

It's sad to think that our dad's ramblings about sport being a business nowadays is more true than ever.