City Till We Die has been made aware of comments made by Managing Director Nick Thompson in an interview published on the iSportconnect website on Friday 1 November. You can read the full piece here: http://bit.ly/NickThom

During the course of the interview Mr Thompson states, “the fans who are campaigning to retain the letters AFC in the official business name actually don’t use it to describe themselves. It is about keeping the key elements that are important to the identity and the essence of the brand. Two brackets, an AFC and the word Limited are not essential.”

This is inaccurate. The club’s business name (changed from “Hull City Association Football Club (Tigers) Limited” to “Hull City Tigers Ltd” in March 2013) is not the focus of the No To Hull Tigers campaign. Our only interest in the new business name is the degree to which its increasingly widespread use outside of a business context causes confusion.

City Till We Die is opposed to changing the playing name of the football club to Hull Tigers or Hull City Tigers – unless a majority of supporters vote in favour of doing so. We will campaign forcefully for a no vote in any such fan referendum.

We are disappointed by Mr Thompson’s misrepresentation of our views, disagree strongly with his assertion that only 5% are opposed to a name change, and reject his negative stereotyping of supporters of the campaign.

Mr Thompson will be leaving the club in December. City Till We Die will be asking to meet with his successor at the earliest opportunity to make our aims clear.

CITY TILL WE DIE