**Towards the end of last season, Newcastle United announced it was going to update the club's badge to give it a modern refresh and make it less complicated.**
Naturally, that news went down like a lead balloon with a large portion of change-fearing fans, but not without merit, as there have been a lot of clubs that have 'modernised' their club crest and made things much worse.
We aren't opposed to changing the badge; it's not like the current crest has been around since 1892, and you just have to look at how much of Adidas' recent merchandise uses the previous NUFC badge and how well all of that retro-inspired kit is selling.
There were a few concepts doing the rounds at the time, and one that was deemed to be part of the official presentation, which looked like the current badge had been redrawn with a ruler and then squashed, which quite rightly had everyone worrying.
This monstrosity is what has fans very worried
Newcastle had wanted the new badge in place for next season
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The original plan had suggested that the new badge would be ready for use in the 2026/27 season, but now Craig Hope has reported in his [Newcastle Confidential](https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-15088533/Newcastle-stadium-delay-badge-Dundee-tickets-injury-news-Craig-Hope.html) column that those plans have been pushed back a year.
Newcastle's decision-making process slowed to a crawl in recent months as Darren Eales stepped away from his role as CEO, which is why the badge, training ground and stadium decisions are all well behind where we'd like them to be.
Now that David Hopkinson is in place as CEO, we may start to see some movement on these issues, but it's too late to implement a new badge for next season.
Newcastle fans have more time to get used to the idea of a new club badge
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Craig Hope cites deadlines involving the Premier League and the kit manufacturer, Adidas, as issues that make it impossible to push through a badge change by next season.
The good news is that it gives fans more time to make their feelings known about the proposed change when it appears. Fans have been creating concept badges ever since the announcements, and there have been some stunners, so we know that a new badge isn't the end of the world, as a nice one is possible.
Just please, not that angular squashed mess. Anything but that!