What AI thinks all 24 EFL Championship club badges will look like in the year 2070 | OneFootball

Football League World have asked AI to imagine what the 24 badges of Championship clubs will look like by 2070, and the results may surprise you.

Graphic design is a medium that never stands still and football clubs often revise and refine their badges, so FLW have asked AI to imagine what the 24 badges of clubs in the Championship will look like by the year 2070.

To football fans, badges matter. They adorn flags that are draped behind the goals at matches. People even get them tattooed onto themselves. Any such redesign is, therefore, one over which any club needs to tread particularly carefully, balancing a need for modernity with the traditions that form such a central part of a club's identity.

And when they get it wrong, the results can turn a club into a bit of a laughing stock. Who, for example, could forget the Leeds rebrand of 2018, when the club claimed to have carried out "six months of research" and consulted 10,000 fans ahead of a centenary redesign, which would leave the club "ready for the next 100 years"? The club were laughed out of court over it, and the whole idea had to be quietly shelved after a huge fan backlash.

With all of this in mind, FLW have asked ChatGPT to peer into the future and imagine what the badges of the 24 clubs currently in the EFL Championship will look like by the year 2070.

Birmingham City

Birmingham City are a very forward-looking club at the moment, and it wouldn't be surprising to see some sort of rebrand coming well ahead of 2070, what with their plans to build a new 62,000-capacity stadium. The current badge dates back to 1972 - though it didn't appear on their shirts for another four years - and the 2070 version has gone for a futuristic black and blue design, with a football motif on top of a globe and a skyline design featuring - though you have to squint a bit to make it out - what looks like the Rotunda.

Blackburn Rovers

I did have to intervene here, as the first ChatGPT design for the Blackburn badge indicated an intention on its part to use black, dark grey and blue for every single badge. After a little prodding, it came up with this design, which features the red rose of Lancashire - good to know that red roses will still exist by 2070, despite climate change - though it does do away with the club's "Arte et Labore" motto. The rising sun behind the rose represents "renewal."

Bristol City

If red roses will still be with us by 2070, will robins? The answer to this question seems to be yes, and AI mixes things up by adding a stylised picture of the Clifton Suspension Bridge to its background, as well as the club's year of formation. Notably, it uses a very similar design language to the Blackburn Rovers badge.

Charlton Athletic

Now we're talking. Not only does ChatGPT predict that Charlton Athletic will change their name to "Chartol City" by 2070, but it also predicts that the sword which currently adorns the club's badge will be held by a Robin with a human hand by 2070.

Coventry City

At least with the "Chartol City" badge, ChatGPT identified the robin's association with the club concerned. The addition of a bird to the Coventry City badge is utterly perplexing, considering that the club's current one - based on the city's coat of arms - has an elephant, an eagle and a phoenix on it, with the decision made to add what looks like a starling to the middle of this one. The flames behind it indicate that this may be an attempt at a phoenix, but this isn't the most notable aspect of the Sky Blue's current badge, so why it's taken over this one is something of a mystery.

Derby County

Derby County's stylised Ram is another product of the early 1970s, and the 2070 design for their badge retains it, although by this time it's in the form of a reasonably terrifying-looking cyber-goat with glowing eyes, which looks as though it's been plugged into The Matrix. It's spelled the name of the club wrong again, as well.

Hull City

Now, the Hull City badge would be one of the easier ones out of these 24, you'd have thought, wouldn't you? Just stick a tiger's head on a crest and away we go, yes? Well... no. Not quite.

Curious to know what had actually been going on here, I took a moment to ask it why it had another ram's head on it, and it replied: "Great catch. I see what happened there. That image was meant to represent Hull City AFC, but it accidentally reused the ram motif from Derby County’s badge concept. Definitely not ideal, since Hull’s symbol is famously the tiger, not a ram."

I'd been working to the assumption that ChatGPT assumed that tigers would be extinct by then, but what do I know? Sorry, AI, I'm accepting your first answer only for these.

Ipswich Town

The calm, almost pastoral image of a shire horse in profile is brought kicking and screaming into the 21st century with Ipswich's badge, which ignores the club's colours of blue and white in favour of jade and gold, as well as standing the horse up on its hind legs as though it's been startled.

Leicester City

Finally, an animal on a badge which looks like the animal it's supposed to be. Leicester City are, of course, the Foxes, and ChatGPT's fox has a big, bushy tail and - because foxes are primarily nocturnal - is set against a nighttime background.

Middlesbrough

At the tenth attempt, ChatGPT finally comes up with a badge which is aesthetically pleasing, although the addition of "MFC FC" to the bottom of it is a little troubling. The lion rampant, as seen on the club's current badge, is present and correct, and AI has added the iconic transporter bridge as a nod to Middlesbrough's industrial heritage.