Charlton Athletic F.C. - Colours and Crest

Colours and Crest

Charlton have used a number of crests and badges during their history, although the current design has not been changed since 1968. The first known badge, from the 1930s, consisted of the letters CAF in the shape of a club from a pack of cards. In the 1940s, Charlton used a design featuring a robin sitting in a football within a shield, sometimes with the letters CAFC in the four quarters of the shield, which was worn for the 1946 FA Cup Final. In the late 1940s and early 1950s, the crest of the former metropolitan borough of Greenwich was used as a symbol for the club but this was not used on the team's shirts.

In 1963, a competition was held to find a new badge for the club, and the winning entry was a hand holding a sword, which complied with Charlton's nickname of the time, the Valiants. Over the next five years modifications were made to this design, such as the addition of a circle surrounding the hand and sword and including the club's name in the badge. By 1968, the design had reached the one known today, and has been used continuously from this year, apart from a period in the 1970s when the just the letters CAFC appeared on the team's shirts.

With the exception of one season, Charlton have always played in red and white. The colours had been chosen by the group of boys who had founded Charlton Athletic in 1905 after having to play their first matches in the borrowed kits of their local rivals Woolwich Arsenal, who also played in red and white. The exception came during the 1923–24 season when Charlton wore the colours of Catford Southend as part of the proposed move to Catford, which were light and dark blue stripes. However, after the move fell through, Charlton returned to wearing red and white as their home colours.