Not my words. They come from a columnist for BT Sport, who will televise Sunday's game. Said columnist has written the good doctor an open letter.http://sport.bt.com/sportfootball/football/assams-contempt-for-hull-supporters-is-extraordinary-and-unprecedented-S11363892297418
An open letter to Dr Assem Allam, owner, Hull City AFC. Dear Dr Allam, Enjoy the view from the Royal Box at Wembley on Sunday. The BT Sport cameras are sure to pick you out, because you will be placed prominently amongst the great and good of English football. Your senses will be overwhelmed by the colour and sound of a showpiece occasion like Hull City’s FA Cup semi-final against Sheffield United. Your club’s fans will lend a golden sheen to one end of the stadium. The other set of supporters, who have shared that communal journey South down the M1, will bleed blood red. This is a match 80 years in the making for Hull City AFC, to use its full title. It means everything to a lot of people. Pause, on Sunday, and wonder why so many want to protect the traditions of a local institution that has been around for 110 years. It will be instructive. I know you organised a ballot on your proposed name change, to Hull Tigers. Hardly a model of democracy was it? Your threat to pursue the Football Association through the courts is not the way to go. People are scared you will carry out your threat, and walk away from a club which was in danger of liquidation, due to debts in excess of £43 million, when you arrived. Forget this nonsense about a media witch hunt against you. As someone who has built a family fortune of £320 million from the £20 you had as a newly-landed economic immigrant more than 40 years ago, you deserve respect. But that respect has to be reciprocated. Bullies, especially those who consider themselves to be benefactors, should never be allowed to prosper. Your contempt for supporters is extraordinary and unprecedented in its intensity. That cannot be right. Sure, your money has built a team which matches the blue-collar tradition of the city it represents. Winning the FA Cup – and someone from your background has form, for daring to dream – would be the achievement of a lifetime. Steve Bruce is a sage and experienced manager, even if the prospect of Wembley being populated by fans wearing a Brucey face mask in his honour is disconcerting. He has done brilliantly since securing promotion to the Premier League and would be a hugely popular winner on Sunday. But will you be? Sad to say, I doubt it. You have the right to do as you please, but those of us who care about what the battered old game represents hope you will be persuaded to accept the status quo. Hull City is not just a name. It is a state of mind. Enjoy your day, Mike
Yep, pretty good. I also think he's got a point - I secretly bet Allam hopes we dont win the cup. It would be a massive spanner in his dastardly works.
People who have been around the game of football for many years (as I have) will applaud that article. Doubt the football dunce Mr Allam will even see it.
We could use a sticky telling us which media outlets/reporters we're allowed to like and agree with. I'm guessing this ones on the "Permitted" list?
You're denying that anything that supports the Anti view is deemed well written, authoritative and good, while anything that doesn't support that view is wrong, misleading and obviously in the employ of Dr Allam?
Obviously, as every leading sports journalist in the country thinks that changing the name would be a ridiculous thing to do.
Very good article, I have yet to read anything from an unbiased journalist or pundit not connected with the club which has remotely been in favour of the change
On this subject, I feel I have to stick up for Phil Buckingham a little actually. I know for a FACT that, from the moment this name change was on the cards, he has been as against it as anyone I know. Seriously, he's far more anti the name change than many of my mates who have supported the club for 30 years. Not bad for a Sunderland fan. The issue he has - which national journos do not - is that if the Allams spit their dummy out, which we clearly see the are want to do, and ban him from the ground then he loses his job. Simple as. We've seen it before, David Bond lost his job when he was banned. Whereas if a national gets banned then the paper just send another of a plethora of reporters and said banned reporter goes to a different game.
If we win the FA Cup then changing the name after all that exposure would be even more preposterous. Football watchers around the world would be saying "Hull Tigers? Are they rivals of that Hull City who won the FA Cup?" It would be completely counter productive.
I remember AA a few years back saying that "Football should be free" or " You shouldn't have to pay to watch football", and if he wants the name to be Hull Tigers, he could have said we are going to make so much money on the name change I'll reduce the admission to a nominal fee or as he said "FREE". That would have been better than saying, accept the name change or I'll leave.
