The Wembley Way

What have a Spartan South Midlands League club and the FA got in common? Too much, according to the latter.

- Martin Calladine

Just before Christmas, it emerged that the FA had successfully applied to strip non-League Wembley FC of the trademark they held on their club badge. Despite not having objected in 2012, when the club first registered the badge, the FA was now apparently concerned people may confuse Wembley FC with Wembley Stadium.

After the row went public, claim and counterclaim flew. The club alleged the FA was pushing them to the brink of bankruptcy. The FA shot back that Wembley had forced its hand by being obstructive to legitimate trademarking efforts.

Whoever’s to blame, it’s come to something when the guardian of the game’s grassroots finds itself taking ruinously expensive legal action against a 70-year-old, ninth-tier club – Wembley are in the Spartan South Midlands League – with whom it had previously coexisted peacefully.

In legal filings, the FA’s specialist firm of intellectual property lawyers claimed that the trademarks of both parties are “highly similar… visually, phonetically and conceptually”. This, they said, meant that “English-speaking Europeans” might struggle to distinguish a non-League club from one of the world’s most famous sports and entertainment venues. Absurd as this sounds to most football fans, it’s a claim that was accepted by the European Union Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO).