New Kerala I-League club found guilty of copying crest from Irish top-flight team

What's the story?

The newly-formed Kerala Evergreen FC have already found themselves in hot water over the design of their new logo. The new club from Kerala's capital city of Thiruvananthapuram put out a crest that looked eerily similar to the crest of Irish top flight club Bray Wanderers.

Dear fans, our apology for current situation regarding KEFC official logo. Graphic design was ordered from external company, based on

— Kerala Evergreen F.C (@kefc_official) July 27, 2017

specific criteria including shape, colours and symbols. Club will contact Bray Wanderers in this matter and started internal investigation.

— Kerala Evergreen F.C (@kefc_official) July 27, 2017

The club were later forced to issue a public apology stating that it was a mistake on their part and have now removed the previous logo from all their social media accounts.

The context

Kerala Evergreen FC are aiming to enter the I-League next season as one of the newly-included clubs. The AIFF rolled out an invitation to bid notice on 21st July for prospective I-League clubs and Evergreen FC have followed that up.

Should their bid for joining the I-League be successful, Kerala Evergreen FC will become the first I-League club with foreign ownership. The club have the Singaporean company, MySports Management, as their majority stakeholder with Jiri Cerny overseeing the operations in India.

The heart of the matter

Bray Wanderers, who play in the League of Ireland Premier Division, were formed in 1942 and have been using their current crest for a considerable amount of time now. Kerala Evergreen FC's design team blatantly copying the design of Bray Wanderers' crest has brought about another disrepute to the Indian game.

At a time when money is pouring into Indian football like never before, clubs like Kerala Evergreen FC are expected to show greater professionalism than what transpired. However, the club acknowledged their mistake and issued an open apology to the Irish club via a Twitter post.

Our apology to @BrayWanderers for club logo issues!

— Kerala Evergreen F.C (@kefc_official) July 27, 2017

What's next?

According to Cerny, the owner of Kerala Evergreen FC, who spoke to Sportskeeda earlier this month, the new club are in line to be given the go-ahead by the AIFF to participate in the I-League next season. The 2017/18 season of the I-League kicks off in mid-November this year and there will be new additions to the top division Indian league after Mumbai FC's relegation last season and Bengaluru FC's move to the ISL.

Author's take

The mishap exposed the incompetence that is prevalent in many levels of Indian football, not least at I-League clubs where the demand for professionalism at all levels is lower than that in the ISL.

Kerala Evergreen FC fell foul to an act of incompetence which has now put a dent to their prospects even before they have actually kicked a ball, leading us all to question how legitimate are the people who claim to work for Indian football clubs and come up with substandard and plagiarised deliverables.