In the midst of all the controversy over the UEFA Champions League Qualification regulations, a much more positive piece of the regulations for that competition came to our attention.
Liverpool have joined the elite group of clubs that were allowed to keep the cup, and as a result are now able to wear a special badge on the sleeves of their shirts.
The badge that Liverpool can wear is blue, with an image of the famous trophy on it. Above the trophy will be the number five, signifying Liverpool have now become European Champions for a fifth time.
According to those infamous Champions League regulations, this patch is known as a badge of honour:
"16.08 The reigning title-holder may wear the UEFA Champions League title-holder
logo, subject to a licence granted by UEFA. Multiple winners of the UEFA
Champions League (three consecutive times or a minimum of five times) may
wear a “badge of honour”, subject to a licence granted by UEFA. UEFA
provides the teams with approved samples."
Incidentally, this is taken from the same document that is being quoted all the time for the qualification controversy, namely the "Regulations of the UEFA Champions League 2004/05". No regulations have actually been published yet for 2005/06, so maybe there isn’t any need to "change" the rules – they don’t yet exist.
* Update: Thanks to Tim for pointing out that the UEFA site has now been updated with the regulations for the 2005/06 season. The document name is identical to the previous one, at http://www.uefa.com/newsfiles/19071.pdf. The section on the badge of honour can now be found in 16.10.