FA Advised To Reject Hull Tigers Rebrand
The membership committee of the Football Association has advised the governing body to reject Hull City’s plan to change their name to Hull Tigers, after the club formally applied to rebrand themselves from next season – a move that has proved unpopular with many fans, despite the owner, Assem Allam, threatening to walk away from the club if the change did not go through.
Allam, who took over at the end of 2010 and has been often credited with saving the club from administration, wants a rebranding in an attempt to appeal to a wider international audience and announced in August that the business which runs the club had already been changed to Hull City Tigers.
The club’s online presence has since been updated with the “Tigers” name, while the club’s Official Twitter bio reads “Welcome to the official Twitter feed of Hull City Tigers”.
Earlier this month, Allam’s son, Ehab, who is the club’s vice-chairman, wrote an open letter which also stated that his family had put £74m into the club.
Media reports indicate that it would be extremely unlikely that the FA council would act against the committee’s advice.
The FA said in a statement online: ‘The FA can confirm its membership committee met on Wednesday [12th 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.’
‘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.’
Meanwhile, the Football Supporters’ Federation has welcomed the recommendation from the membership committee after submitting evidence to the FA opposing the name change.
Hull have been known as the Tigers for most of their 110-year history, with the nickname thought to have been coined by a Hull Daily Mail reporter in 1905 in reference to the club’s black and amber kit.
