English Premier League team's fans furious over name change

 

According to the franchise owner Assem Allamis of Egypt, English Premier League soccer club will

no longer go by the name of Hull City. From now on the team will be known as the Hull City Tigers and this has the majority of their fans up in arms. Allamis said he changed the name of the club because City is a far too common name in soccer.

He’s got a point there as dozens of the 92 pro soccer clubs in England go by the name City. Some prime examples are Stoke City, Manchester City, Leicester City, Bristol City, However, Hull has been known as City for over a century now and they were christened with that name way back in 1904. In fact, the proper name is Hull City Association Football Club.

Allamis claimed that the name Hull City is simply irrelevant and he just doesn’t like it. He said he doesn’t want to share the same name with numerous other clubs and would rather have something more original and unique rather than something common. He added that he wants the club to have its own special identity. Most fans have been happy with Allamis since he took ownership of the team in 2010 after they were relegated from the Premier League. It’s just three years later and the team is now back in the top tier of English soccer.

This name change has enraged some of the club’s supporters though and many of them have let their feelings be known. The Hull City Official Supporters' Club placed a survey on its Facebook page and asked fans if they liked the name change, were against it, or didn’t really care about it one way or the other. The results showed that a high percentage of supporters were definitely against changing the team’s moniker to Hull City Tigers.

Rick Skelton, who is a well-known Hull City blogger, said Hull is just a small team in England and isn’t well known anywhere else in the world. He claims that changing the name of the club won’t change that. Skelton said the only way for the team to make a name for itself is to achieve results on the soccer pitch so he views the name change as being a pointless exercise.

The blogger added that the name Hull City is far from irrelevant since it’s been in place for the last 109 years and it has a special historical meaning to the city itself as well as the fans. He said the fans love and cherish the name and have banded together many times over the years to support the club when it was in financial trouble. Skelton pointed out that it might just be a common name to Allamis, but fans love it and the name will still be cherished long after he’s gone. He added that Allamis has done a lot for Hull and it would be a shame if he’s remembered for changing the team’s name instead of all the positive things he’s achieved.

Allamis stated that shorter names are easier to brand and they are more successful commercially. He’s rather just call the team the Hull Tigers or Hull City Tigers and of course realizes he can’t force the fans to call the team by the new name.

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