Frankfurt, Germany, Jan 16: Supported by Germany's Art Directors club, 11 design agencies have joined the critics of the Football World Cup 2006 logo and plan to come up with an alternative emblem.
''Three years of ridiculousness ahead of the World Cup is not a good signal. We don't want a silly world cup but a nice one. From the outset,'' said Klaus Hesse, one of the members of the new campaign.
But a spokesman for the organising committee swiftly dismissed a change of logo. He said organisers were happy with the existing one unveiled last autumn and that the committee had nothing to do with the move by the designers.
Named ''Celebrating Faces of Football'', the emblem unveiled last November features three round smiling faces.
World football supremo Joseph Blatter praised the logo but media reports were critical and so are now 11 agencies, who want to present new ideas for a world cup logo in March.


Bureau Report