Six marks and a shortlist of lines. Everything here is sector-neutral on purpose: the record starts with football but is going to hold finance, public bodies and anything else, so a mark that only reads as football would have to be thrown away within months.
Each shown at display size, then at 32px and 16px — the sizes that decide whether a logo actually works
Four strokes and the fifth laid across them. The universal mark for counting things that keep happening — prison walls, scoreboards, bar bills.
Why it works: it says again without a word, reads at 16px, and belongs to no industry. The strike is the only red on the page, so it inherits the site's one accent.
A footnote reference. The single most characteristic thing about the site is that every claim carries a numbered source.
Why it works: it is literally the site's method as a symbol. Risk: quiet. Reads as academic rather than as a warning, and needs the wordmark beside it to mean anything.
Three entries in a ledger; the third struck out. A pattern, and the line drawn under it.
Why it works: clean, modern, scales well. Risk: at 16px the fading third bar disappears and it becomes a generic "list" icon.
A page in a register with one item flagged. The record, and the thing on it.
Why it works: unambiguous about what the site is. Risk: document icons are everywhere; this is the least distinctive of the six.
A rule, ended. The visual form of the sentence the site is named after.
Why it works: the simplest thing here and the best at 16px by a distance. Risk: so minimal it may read as decoration rather than a mark.
Instantly legible. Everyone knows what it means and what it is for.
Why it is a trap: it is football. The moment the record covers a bank or a hospital trust, the logo is wrong and you are rebranding a site people have started to recognise. Included so the decision is deliberate, not because I would use it.
The tally, set with the wordmark and the leading tagline
Your two instincts — it will not be forgotten and not judged, just facts — pull in slightly different directions. Both are right; they belong in different places.
| Line | What it does | Where it belongs |
|---|---|---|
| Not our judgement. Just the record. | States the editorial stance in three words. Pre-empts the first accusation anyone will make — that this is a grudge site. Says the reader draws their own conclusion. | Primary. Masthead, under the wordmark. |
| It will not be forgotten. | Yours, and the more memorable of the two. Carries weight and a slight edge — which is an asset on a page about things people would rather were dropped. | Strapline. Foot of the page, share cards, the line people quote. |
| Nothing forgotten. Nothing invented. | Pairs persistence with accuracy — the two things the site actually promises. Closest to the evidence standard already on the page. | Alternative primary if you want the accuracy claim up front. |
| The record remembers. | Shortest and most quotable. Slightly ominous, no judgement implied. | Good for a favicon-adjacent app name or a social handle. |
| No verdicts. Just the record. | The bluntest statement of neutrality. Strong on a page about tribunals, where "verdict" is a loaded word. | Works on the About / method section. |
| We keep the record. You draw the conclusion. | Explicit and disarming. Too long for a masthead but excellent as a single line in the disclaimer. | Disclaimer opener. |
The instinct is right. Two words in it are not, and both would be used against the site
1. “Not judged” collides with the content. Almost every entry on the page was judged — by an independent Commission, an Appeal Board, or the Court of Arbitration for Sport. Manchester City were judged. Everton were judged. A masthead reading “not judged” sitting above a table of tribunal judgments is the first thing a hostile reader will screenshot.
The meaning you intend is we are not passing judgement. English drops the agent here, and the sentence quietly acquires a second meaning you do not want. Naming the agent fixes it completely.
2. “Just facts” claims more than the site does. The page's own method section says corroboration is not verification, and that something can be unchallenged and still untrue. That honesty is the site's strongest asset — and a tagline promising “just facts” contradicts it in four words. A critic would not even need to do research; they would quote your own disclaimer back at you.
What the site actually delivers is stronger and more defensible than “facts”: it delivers findings, with their sources and their status. “The record” carries that. “Facts” overstates it.
| Version | Verdict |
|---|---|
| Not judged, just facts. | Yours. Right idea, but “not judged” is contradicted by the page and “just facts” is contradicted by your own disclaimer. |
| Not judged. Just recorded. | Fixes “facts”. The agent is still missing, so the collision with tribunal judgments remains. |
| Not our judgement. Just the record. | Closest to yours that survives contact with a critic. Names the agent, so there is no second reading. Claims exactly what the site delivers and nothing more. Same rhythm, same plain words. |
| We don't judge. We record. | Blunter and shorter. Slightly more combative in tone, which cuts against the neutrality it is asserting. |
My recommendation. Mark 1, the tally, with “Not our judgement. Just the record.” under the wordmark and “It will not be forgotten” as the closing line of every page.
The tally is the only mark here that says this has happened before and we are counting, which is the whole premise, and it does it without a single word and without belonging to football. It survives the move into other sectors, which the card does not, and it still reads at 16px, which the struck repeat does not.
Using both lines rather than choosing gives you the neutrality where a sceptical reader arrives, and the memorable line where they leave.
Every mark here is SVG, drawn in code — no image files, no font dependency, and it inherits the site's light and dark palettes automatically. Whichever you pick takes about ten minutes to wire into the masthead, the favicon and the share card.