If you have been on social media recently you would have seen the recent trend of football fans bashing medals. The thought process is fair and makes sense but the idea doesn’t seem to be thought out that well. As a website that speaks about jewellery a lot, we know the difference between medals and rings, and we understand that aesthetically medals are less exciting. But does that mean we scrap them all together?
History Of Championship Rings
Although football fans now want the rings for aesthetic reasons, the championship rings have a long history in the world of sport, which I wasn’t completely aware of. Championship rings have been around for 24 years longer than the NHL and were invented in the sport of hockey.
In 1893 the Stanley Cup was won by the Montreal Hockey Club and in celebration of the win, the team ordered rings for the whole players. These rings were less flashy and resembled simple wedding bands but it still represented the win.
Now in America, you would struggle to find a sport that offers its winners anything other than rings and this surely won’t change because of the history the sport has with rings and this is because of the history and the iconicness that comes with getting a championship ring.
Medals And Their History
When a team wins a trophy, all of the winning players get a medal as an individual award to represent what they have done for the team and its fans. This has been a long-standing tradition and an iconic one at that. When football is dominated by a team, their players having all of their medals around their neck is a great image. If we looked at the Boylesports football markets for next season, we would see that Real Madrid are favourites for the Champions League. If they won it, players like Luka Modric could have seven medals around their neck and have an image that would easily go viral. So why do football fans want medals scrapped?
The Recent Trend
After Real Madrid beat Dortmund in the recent Champions League final, a video went around of Rodrygo showing off his winning medal and this felt like when the fans turned cynical. In all honesty, the look of the medals is a bit boring and when you look at the medals there is a clear difference between how they look compared to the Championship rings in America.
This wasn’t the only thing that brought attention to the medals because the winners of the Serie A in Italy, Inter Milan, gave their places championship rings to celebrate their win and this was where the trend really gained traction. I will be the first one to tell you that the rings that Inter made for their players were incredible. They had a beautiful design, were diamond-encrusted little emblems on the ring to show the title and the year etc, and in seeing this I would 100% understand why certain fans would want the change.
The Issues With The Rings
As an English football fan, I am starting to see an issue with the sport in general. It feels like we are getting more and more Americanised with every year and the Championship rings would make this an even bigger issue.
When I think of winners in football I think of trophies and medals, with the ceremony before the trophy lift where the medals are placed on the player’s necks, with rings you lose this which erases a tradition from the sport.
Personally, I love the look of the Championship rings when they are done right and I think as sports memorabilia, you can’t get much better than the rings. I think if football teams want to give their players Championship rings they can, but we shouldn’t scrap such an iconic and integral thing like medals to make way for rings.
