You are right, its down to the FA Council. This may be the first time the council will vote on changing a Premier League's clubs playing name. How they will vote will determine what name we will play under. As DMD has said the FA expect fan consultation. People watching a football match isn't consultation and if the FA claimed it was it would be open to legal challenge. If he puts in the application the council will vote on it. The campaign is aimed at showing those people that a significant, maybe a majority, of fans oppose the name change. That is all we can really do unless we buy the club. I expect sometime after April for there to be a vote. I don't know what the outcome will be, but I'm working for a no vote. I've seen nothing in Assem Allam's interviews that suggests he thinks he may lose the vote. He's acting like its a foregone conclusion and he can tell the FA its his business and he can do what he wants.
Here is a straightforward question for you then:- Why should the owner of the club give you the chance to vote on what he does with his club?
I didn't mean it's ridiculous for people to hand back their season tickets if they feel that strongly. I meant that it was ridiculous for AA to suggest that everyone who turns up to support the team, also supports the name change, it's a ludicrous assertion.
You've already had this answered, it's a football club, not a regular business. It's part of the community, it's been in existence and supported by the community for 109 years, it will be in existence for another 109 years and it gets protection that is not afforded to other businesses. If this was any regular business, then AA would barely have any customers left by now.
Accepting that some information is best kept quiet for now, do you have any indication of the FAs thoughts on Mr Allam changing the team name prior to April, as he's trying in places now?
Yes, I know that is your take on this. My question was directed at Macca personally. Now his answer may well be the same as yours, but football club or not, part of the community or not, it is a legal entity with owners/directors who are legally responsible for its running. With that responsibility comes the duty and the authority to run it as they see fit.If they get it wrong they will be held to account, and saying "well Olm and Macca told me to do it this way" is unlikely to be an acceptable answer. If this was "any regular business" then AA would not have people like you telling him how to run it, so the situation would not arise. Which is presumably why Allam Marine is successful.
I've asked before a few times but never really got a straight answer. Have the FA confirmed their requirements in order to change the name, and have they confirmed what does and what does not count as fan consultation?
It's not me he has to listen to, it's the FA, he has to convince them that he should be allowed to change the club name.
Seems to me you're putting a lot of faith in the FA actually caring about this as much as you lot do. I can't see this being anything other than trivial to them, and considering we all know, and complain about how they deal with generally massively important footballing matters, that faith is going to be badly misplaced. The only person that can stop the name change is Dr A, the FA will do, as usual, FA.
You could well be right, but I don't see that as a reason to do nothing, surely it's a reason to push them harder?
Option one was convince AA, that obviously failed. Option two is to get the FA to act to protect the name, that's what we're working on now. If that fails, we move on to option three.
We could do with some help if we get to Option Three: [video=youtube;G_Sy6oiJbEk]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G_Sy6oiJbEk[/video]
Absolutely classic sketch. My Dad introduced me to the Marx Brothers and we spent many a happy hour over the years watching and re-watching their films!
This is where the thread veers off.......but this, too, is a favourite of mine: [video=youtube;DWrA3VPwJSA]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DWrA3VPwJSA[/video]
I'm worried that option 2 is a waste of time. We all know what the FA are like, and they didn't do much to stand in the way of MK Dons which was a far worse situation as it was changing the club in every way, not just an American style rename like we're looking at. The very fact they won't confirm their requirments to ratify a name change tells you all you need to know, they are going to let Allam do it and they don't want to face embarrassment from either letting it through when Allam hasn't met the requirements or from promising Allam acceptance then goin back on their word. I seriously wouldn't look at the FA as anything but a little side project. Get your full energy on to option 3 whatever it is and stop wasting time. Here's an option 4 which is a guarantee. Register every variation of the playing name that could be used, Hull Tigers, Hull Tigers FC or whatever. Then the hard work is finding people to commit and play for those clubs else the name is free again. Just make sure the name holders are peoole who live comfortably with integrity like yourself OLM, to ensure they won't sell out when Allam knocks on the door and offers telephone numbers for the name.
I genuinely don't think pushing the FA harder will achieve anything. They won't stop anything. I never suggested doing nothing, but pinning hopes on them is futile was my point. Before you know it, it'll be the new year, it'll be April, and it'll be done. Something needs to be done before then, directly or indirectly to Dr Allam else its job done. Oh, that sounds mysterious and exciting! Regarding option 2, at what point do you decide that's a waste of time and move to option 3? As above, I'd suggest April will be too late.
