It looks as if the Football Association are ready to reject the change of the name of Hull City to Hull Tigers, a move strongly opposed by Hull fans. The campaign against the name change was led by the highly professional City Till We Die fans group. City fans insisted that they were a club not a brand.
It looks as if the Football Association are ready to reject the change of the name of Hull City to Hull Tigers, a move strongly opposed by Hull fans. The campaign against the name change was led by the highly professional City Till We Die fans group. City fans insisted that they were a club not a brand.
A FA statement said, ‘The FA can confirm its Membership Committee met on Wednesday [12 March] and has made a unanimous recommendation to the FA Council to reject Hull City’s request to change their playing name to Hull Tigers from next season.
‘The recommendation, which came after consultation with stakeholders within and outside of the game, will be discussed and voted upon at a full FA Council meeting on 9 April, 2014.’ [They are unlikely to reject the Membership Committee recommendation].
‘Hull City are able to make a further submission to the FA Council in view of the written reasons, which they have received, before the 9 April meeting.’
At the weekend, owner Aseem Allam announced that he was going to poll the club’s season ticket holders on the issue, although whether this was a face saving move was unclear.
Hull City vice chairman Ehab Allam in suggested the FA had somehow changed their rules, influenced by a ‘minority’ of fans, to enable them to say no. However, it is evident that most fans have opposed the proposed change.
Dr Allam infuriated fans by saying that the existing name was a ‘lousy identity’. In fact his proposed name change was, apart from its offence to the traditions of the club, a poor marketing idea with none of the impact he claimed for it.