The reason Chelsea badge has a lion symbol has been revealed and this could be quite interesting for Chelsea fans.
Football is the king of sports with a huge global followership but few football fans care to twig the meaning behind the various arts and symbols used by their clubs.
Chelsea badge is now on the radar with its blue-colored symbol of interests to pundits.
A club’s badge is steeped in its unique history, the founding, the glories, aspirations, and others.
Chelsea badge is no different. Described in plain terms as “rampant blue-lion regardant badge,” it bears the defining trademarks delineating the founding and history of the club.
Designed in two round circles, Chelsea badge has the club’s name boldly written in the first circle while the symbol of a lion is carved into the inner circle.
Ordinary Chelsea fans must have thought the Lion symbol in the badge was inherited from inception; that is not the case.
Chelsea inner circle did not have the Lion symbol before. In place of the Lion symbol was the image of a Chelsea pensioner.
The image was reportedly used as a tribute to Chelsea Royal Hospital.
The Hospital, cited at Hospital Road in Chelsea, was established in 1682 by King Charles II to attend to war veterans.
A pension scheme was initiated to fund the hospital with Chelsea pensioners contributing to the scheme.
War veterans, disabled or maimed, were treated and attended to in the facility. So, at the founding of Chelsea football club in 1905, the crest of the club had the image of Chelsea pensioners who helped run the Chelsea Hospital in honour of the war veterans and the pensioners.
Due to the design of the badge, bearing the image of Chelsea pensioners, Chelsea was nicknamed ‘Chelsea pensioners.’
Now, according to the Athletic, there was a point in the history of the club when a call was made for a more flamboyant and intimidating badge.
The call was championed by one of Chelsea’s football managers, Tedd Drake.
Tedd Drake, who died in 1995, aged 82, was Chelsea manager from 1952 to 1961. Born in Southampton, the former English footballer turned manager led the Blues to their first title in 1955 and was the first person to win the English topflight both as manager and a player, having won the title while playing for Arsenal in 1934/35 football season.
The Athletic reports Drake championed the call to substitute the Chelsea pensioners badge with the Lion symbol.
In 1953, his call was heeded by the club’s hierachy and the crest of Chelsea’s logo was changed with the lion symbol hoisted.
Two years after the change, Tedd Drake led Chelsea to their first title in 1955.
However, the Lion symbol was not adopted into the badge from a vacuum. A posh British family, Cardogan family, who reportedly owned the land on which Stamford Bridge was built, were behind the Lion symbol.
The Cardogan family also held the position of Chelsea presidency until the 1980s and were key decision makers at the club.
The Lion symbol was derived from the crest of the Cardogan family while the Blues staff held by the Lion represented the Abbot of Westminster who owned the Manor of Chelsea in the middle ages.
