For some, club football will always be seen as more important than the international game. For those people, they would sooner see the team that they support win a throw-in than England win an international tournament.
For others, meanwhile, it will always be club before country, having a huge amount of pride in the badge that can be seen on the shirts of the players that take to the field every time they are called up to represent the national side.
The question is, what is the history of that badge? Why does it contain three lions and what have the changes been over the years?
The Coat of Arms of England
If you want to understand the badge that the England players wear on their chest, you first need to have some inkling about the coat of arms of England itself. It was historically used by the monarchs of England as arms of dominion, adopted in around 1200 by the Plantagenet kings and then used by successive monarchs ever since. The arms see three gold lions, complete with blue claws and tongues, sit on top of a red background, lying right to left and looking ‘out’ at the world. Although historically referred to as ‘leopards’, this is more to do with the pose than the animals.
Although it was adopted in 1200, there is evidence that Royal Emblems depicting lions were used by the Saxons as well as the Danes, reinterpreted in a Christian context. A representation of three lions on a shield dates back to King Richard I’s Great Seal, which initially had one or two lions rampant before being altered to have three in 1198. The feeling is that the third was added in order to show Richard I’s three roles as King of England, Duke of Normandy and Duke of Aquitaine. There is obviously an irony, therefore, in the xenophobia occasionally demonstrated by some England supporters.
Representing the Football Association
It might seem strange to think of the England national side as being representative of the Football Association, but that is exactly what it is. The fact is that the FA’s badge is the one that is on the England shirt, rather than it being an England-specific badge. The Football Association was formed in 1863, at which time it seemed eminently sensible for them to have a logo that was based on the Royal shield. There was one change made to the FA’s badge in 1949, prior to which point the lions had all been wearing crowns, but these were removed in order to allow them to be different to the badge of the England cricket team.
Of course, just because the England team is wearing the logo of the FA doesn’t mean that there isn’t pride in the badge from those who love the side and are proud of the country that they come from. In fact, there is an argument to be made that the badge’s use has now been subsumed by the football team instead of the Football Association. After all, how many people reading this had any idea that it was the FA’s logo rather than something specific to the England team that was on the chest of every player that heads out onto the pitch to represent the Three Lions in major tournaments?
The Badge’s Evolution
The first-ever badge worn on an England shirt was one that was in place between 1879 and 1949. Much more squat in nature when compared to the badge people have come to know since, it bore three lions wearing crowns on a black crest that also had a red crown on top of it. From 1950 onwards, England’s badge saw the removal of the crowns worn by the lions, whilst the crest itself was stretched out a touch. The three lions remained in black, whilst red roses were introduced; three on each lion and one underneath the bottom one. That remained in use until the early 1990s.
From w/c 15 June 1996 : England expects as Paul Gascoigne appeared on the front of the Radio Times.
#90s
— Russty Russ (@russtyruss.bsky.social) Jun 15, 2025 at 20:33
In 1993, the colour of the lions was altered to become a light blue, which stayed as the badge until the end of the millennium. At that point, the lions were turned into a dark blue, whilst the crest was shrunken down in order to allow a dark blue banner to be put on top of it with the word ENGLAND in white put onto it. In 2003, the colour scheme changed again, this time seeing both the lions and the banner being made into royal blue. Then, in 2009, it became slightly lighter and the banner was removed. The shortest-lived badge came in 2012, when all of the lions and the crest were turned red.
The current badge is the same as the one that was used from 2009 until 2012, brought back in 2013 after the red badge caused uproar amongst supporters.