Football League announces EFL re-brand from 2016-17

The Football League will be re-named the English Football League ahead for the 2016-17 season.

The move comes “as part of a comprehensive corporate and competition re-branding” announced by the league on Thursday.

An abbreviated league title of EFL will be used throughout everyday promotion and publicity efforts, with the initials also featuring on a new logo comprised of 72 balls in three groups of 24 to represent each team taking part in English football’s second, third and fourth tiers.

The logo will be the fourth used by the league in its 127-year history and each club in the Championship, League One and League Two is to be presented with its own bespoke version in its playing colours.

Football League chief executive Shaun Harvey said: “The new EFL name rightly emphasises the central role our clubs play at the heart of English professional football. 
  
“In an increasingly challenging global sports market, it is absolutely essential that sports properties can project a modern identity that not only resonates with their regular audience but is also easily recognisable to a broader audience of potential fans, viewers and commercial partners. “

A number of stakeholders, including the Football Association, the Premier League, the Professional Footballers’ Association and broadcaster Sky Sports were consulted along with more than 18,000 fans during the Football League’s rebranding process.