“On the eleventh day of Christmas my true love sent to me, a cute mascot to entertain for free.”
We all love a football mascot don’t we. They are basically pointless, serving no purpose but to look silly. But we are for some reason drawn to them, watching closely as they go about their business. But who are the best? We haven’t got a clue but here are our top three of 2011.
3rd Place- A rabbit with a pan on his head
The date – April 2011; the place – The Råsunda, Stockholm; the occasion – the high octane AIK/Djurgården derby. Acrid smoke from the hundreds of flares fills the stadium. Hate spills down from the stands. And all amongst the chaos is a 6 foot person in a rabbit costume with a tin pan on upside down as a hat walking around the ground trying to calm things down with a wiggle of his little tail and a shake of a hand. Of course there is. That is just logical.
2nd – I really do not know what
I have tried to describe this “thing” the best I can but I really do not know where to start. Essentially it is a club badge on legs, but with big hands in blue gloves…and white tights. And “it” walks around the pitch basically waving and doing very little else..apart from when “it” strays a bit too close to the pitch during the warm up when the players use it for target practice.
1st – The Coxyde Seal
There are not many people who can say they went to see a game abroad simply because they were launching a new mascot. Not any old mascot either, but a big blue seal.
But that is what happened to us last month when we headed across the Channel to Coxyde, literally a stone’s through from the French/Belgium border, to meet the new seal on the block. A Blue Seal in a landlocked town in Belgium. I am sure there was some logic in there, but I am damned if I can work it out.
