What’s in a name? According to the FA, plenty.
Hull City owner Assem Allam has failed in his attempt to rename the club to “Hull Tigers” after the Football Association rejected the proposal.
The decision follows the unanimous recommendation by the FA’s membership committee, who voted last month.
Hull’s proposed name change, according to Allam, was to include the nickname in order to better market the club around the world.
Allam, as well as the club itself, have hinted on many occasions that if the name change was rejected, he would pull out of club ownership. Prior to the vote, Allam’s son Ehab wrote an open letter to the FA which stated his family “had put in £74m to the club and had nothing left to give.”
His threats were supported when the club issued the findings of its own informal poll done of supporters to find support for the name change. The club poll offered supporters the following choices, word for word:
- “Yes to Hull Tigers with the Allam family continuing to lead the club”
- “No to Hull Tigers”
The inclusion of Allam’s ownership status in the first option was seen by many as a threat, as well as a manipulation of the results to play off supporter loyalty. The findings, according to the club’s release, resulted in 2,565 voting for the change and 2,517 against it.
The club issued a statement to say they will not be commenting on the decision...which seems oddly similar to a comment. Oh well.