The issue with the Atlético badge and where club and fans are on the issue

To get a feel for where Atlético Madrid fans are at in terms of the club badge and the frustrations many of them feel over it, we spoke to Ricky over at Esto Es Atleti about his feelings on the issue. They have written an excellent piece on the badge and what it means here (in Spanish but Google Translate might help).

There have been 8,000 signatures to change the old badge back. Who is driving this petition and are all the peñas in agreement? (Interview done on Saturday, current number is closer to 20,000)

It started as a Frente Atlético supported drive after some (incorrect) rumours surfaced that Atleti was offering alternatives to the crest on their clothes due to bad sales. That is a product in the store that has always been offered during the current season. No not all peñas agree.

Do you think there is any hope of a change back?

In another club I might, but I am hugely pessimistic about the club amending their wrongs.

Do you think the badge has created a big division between the fans and the club?

Some fans have embraced the whole overhaul concept (modern yet impersonal stadium, new crest, daring jerseys) and others simply hate those changes. It was always improbable that a radical change would appeal to the majority.

I haven’t heard the “El escudo no se toca” song in a while at the Wanda, do the fans still sing that?

The fans and the FA have gone back and forth in terms of remaining consistent in their complaints against the crest. Anyway my personal opinion about chants in particular and atmosphere in general is that it is extremely poor compared to Vicente Calderon.

Has there been any feedback from Cerezo or anyone at the club that you know of?

The club remains silent on the matter and no statements regarding the resistance to changes have ever been mentioned by the club.

Management have opted for ignoring fan requests in general on this matter. In Dec. 2016 there was a http://change.org request that received 10.000 supporters. The club cross-references the 10,000 names against their database of socios and acknowledged a complaint by 4209 socios.

This interview took place on Saturday and since that, the number of people to sign the petition has increased to almost 20,000 people.