Ajax Reportedly Banned From 'Three Little Birds' On Their Away Shirt

Ajax have reportedly been banned from wearing the 'Three Little Birds' logo, in tribute to Bob Marley, on their third kit, with UEFA stopping them.

Ajax's home kit is as iconic as the team wearing it and over the last few years the Eredivisie giants have created some memorable and beautiful alternative kits.

This season's third kit was so well liked that fans trying to buy it crashed the club's website a minute after it went on sale last month.

The club adopted Bob Marley's 'Three Little Birds' as a song a number of years ago and, in collaboration with the legendary musician's family, they put the Three Little Birds symbol on the new third kit this season.

However, the logo was actually missing from the shirt as they beat PEC Zwolle on Saturday, with Sebastian Haller scoring twice, and that's reportedly to do with UEFA.

According to Ajax Life, the European governing body have banned the logo. "The European Football Association sees it as a different expression than the club logo, logo clothing sponsor or sleeve sponsor. Other expressions are not allowed," the site said.

Ajax played at the weekend without the Three Little Birds on their shirts. Image: PA Images

Clubs are only supposed to have one sort of team logo on the shirt, outside of the ones being paid for by sponsors, which don't seem to have a limit, of course.

The Three Little Birds isn't in any way an official club logo and was just a touching tribute to the Jamaican reggae artist, but that doesn't matter to UEFA.

Serie A club Venezia, who are responsible for some of the most beautiful kits every year, have also fallen foul of the rule this year.

Their latest shirts say Venezia across the chest, as well as featuring the club badge, but this was seen as a second logo, so they removed the club crest.

Venezia's shirt doesn't have the logo on it any more. Image: PA Images

At the release of the new Ajax kits, Marley's daughter Cedella was very excited by the tribute, saying, " "I am beyond touched that Ajax has taken Three Little Birds and made it their anthem.

"Stories like this warm my heart and show how impactful songs like Three Little Birds can be. Soccer was everything to my father... and to use his words: 'football is freedom.'"

Not enough freedom to use the logo apparently...

Topics: Football, Ajax, Netherlands, Eredivisie

Ryan Sidle

Ryan is a journalist for SPORTbible with over eight years of experience. Passionate about all sports, he mainly covers football and F1 - Daniel Ricciardo once spent an entire interview referring to him as 'Ryan Gosling,' still his proudest moment.

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