1. “Assem Allam has put in his money so surely he can do what he wants?”
We remain eternally grateful that Dr. Allam guaranteed the future of the club by securing the debt run up by the previous regime. Without his input the club would have faced liquidation.
We believe that the owner should conduct the business in any way that sees the football club prosper. But that shouldn’t give Dr. Allam the right to do whatever he wants with the club’s name and tradition. A football club is a part of a community. The fans are informal stakeholders in the club. Many fans have spent an awful lot of money following Hull City over the years, and in bad times the fans have propped the club up.
Dr. Allam loaned the club an eye-watering amount of money. It’s important to remember that many fans spend a huge amount on following Hull City too, in relative terms. Collectively, fans provide the club with a significant proportion of its income.
Dr. Allam must be allowed to make decisions on how the club is run. However no football club owner should be allowed to dismiss a club’s history, tradition and its place in the community.
2. “Why would I protest against the Allams after everything they’ve done?”
This isn’t a protest against Dr. Allam or his family. This isn’t a protest against the way they’ve run the football club or an attempt to force them out.
This is a campaign to save the name of “Hull City A.F.C.”. When Dr. Allam purchased the football club, he declared it a “gift to the community”. We want to show Dr. Allam that the community loves and values the football club and feels that the name is an important representation of that community and the city.
We will show Dr. Allam the respect he deserves for the work he has done at the football club and for what he has achieved. But we will continue to urge him to re-think a decision that would dismiss the history and the tradition of the great club that he worked so hard to save.
3. “I’ll still be able to call them whatever I like won’t I?”
Fans currently call the club “Hull City”, “City” or “The Tigers” on a regular basis. This won’t change in the short term.
As it starts to change the whole crowd won’t be supporting the same team. Some fans will have Hull City shirts and some will have Hull Tigers shirts. Some fans will sing Hull City songs and some will sing Hull Tigers songs. It won’t be as enjoyable for anyone.
The future generations of supporters won’t call the club “Hull City” or “City”. Our children and grandchildren will only know “Hull Tigers”. Eventually chants like “City till I die” and “Come on City” will fail to make sense and die out.
While we may still call them whatever we like, “Hull Tigers” will become the common name. It will be “Hull Tigers vs. Leeds United” on the fixture list, “Hull Tigers” on the kit and the badge and should we ever win a trophy, it will be engraved “Hull Tigers”. 109 years of tradition will be dismissed.
How many MK Dons fans still call their club “Wimbledon”?
4. “What if I don’t like Hull Tigers but I can live with Hull City Tigers?”
“Hull City Tigers” is not the goal. Dr. Allam stated that “City” is a lousy identity and that a brand name should be as short as possible. He has been referring to the club as “Hull Tigers” in media interviews for a while.
5. “Wouldn’t you rather be Hull Tigers playing in the Premier League than Hull City playing in League Two?”
This isn’t a choice that has to be made. We are already “Hull City” playing in the Premier League. Hull City have achieved remarkable success in the last ten years with the name as it is.
Hull City achieved the third quickest rise from the fourth tier to the top tier of English football in history. Hull City drew crowds of over 20,000 in the fourth tier. Hull City holds the record for a fourth tier crowd in the modern (Premier League) era. That happened because the community cherishes Hull City. The community supported people who invested in its future.
There is no proven case for why the club shouldn’t continue to be successful. Dr. Allam has not provided evidence of any market research or expert opinion that would support the need for change. The club already receives a huge amount of TV money. It already has a strong identity with the unique striped shirts, the highly marketable badge and one of the best and oldest nicknames in English football.
We support Dr. Allam in his quest to attract interest and investment in the football club. If he feels that he can take Hull City on to another level then he has our backing. We urge him to do so while staying true to the history of the football club and recognising its position at the heart of the community.
6. “Why don’t you move with the times?”
There may well be other industries, sports and even football markets such as America and Australia where this sort of thing is seen as a means of progressing. That isn’t the case with football in England.
English football is still special. It is still viewed with awe around the world. Millions of people in Scandinavia, mainland Europe, America, Australia and Asia support clubs in England that they have never seen in the flesh. These people grew up watching and adoring English football and they still do.
They love the traditionalism. They love the names, the nicknames, the colours and the badges. For all the changes that have been embraced in English football over the past 30 years, some things remain sacred.
Even clubs who now travel over 20,000 miles in pre-season to sell themselves to emerging markets recognise that the history and tradition of the club is a massive part of the reason fans on the other side of the globe can feel a part of its community.
7. “Where does my donation go?”
The campaign is a strictly not for profit operation run entirely on a voluntary basis. All funds raised go directly towards materials that will raise awareness of the issue. So far, funds have been spent on printing leaflets, making badges and commissioning flags.
Additional items of merchandise (such as scarves and wristbands) will be sold to members via our website, as a way of raising extra funds.
We also have an ethical sourcing policy so that wherever possible the funds will go back into the local economy. We will prioritise sourcing in Hull in the first instance, in Yorkshire in the second or at minimum in the North of England. Also wherever possible, we will support independent suppliers.
Details of what donations we have received and how the money has been spent are available on request.
8. “What are you going to do if Dr. Allam doesn’t change his mind?”
The campaign will concentrate initially on uniting the fans who want the name to remain “Hull City” and emphasising the strength of the fans’ feelings.
Any change of name must be ratified by the Football Association and the Premier League, who require evidence of fan consultation. Our group intends to offer our assistance to Dr Allam and the football club to help ensure a fair, inclusive and rigorous consultation is put in place. If Dr. Allam does not consider the wishes of the fans then we will appeal directly to the FA and the Premier League to ensure that they do not endorse the change.
However, we remain confident that when Dr. Allam realises the strength of feeling that exists amongst the fan base for the 109 year old history of the name and the club then we can reach an amicable conclusion.