Meeting with Dr Allam...

Hull City supporters’ group City Till We Die do not believe owner Dr Assem Allam has properly thought through his decision to change the club’s name.

The Egyptian-born businessman took control of the club in 2010 and his significant funding has massively contributed to Hull’s rise back to Premier League.

Allam, however, has caused outrage amongst the Hull supporters with his decision to remove ‘Association Football Club’ from the name of club. The 74-year-old has also changed the company name of the club to ‘Hull City Tigers Ltd’ but the Premier League revealed the Yorkshire outfit would continue to be referred to as ‘Hull City’ for the 2013-2014. Allam now intends to gradually phase out any references to ‘AFC’ and ‘City’ and eventually change the club name to ‘Hull Tigers’.

The ‘City’ moniker is "common, redundant and irrelevant" according to Allam and gives the club a "lousy identity".

Mark Gretton, a representative of the City Till We Die supporters’ group, thinks the Hull owner has not given the name change enough consideration.

He told SportsDirect News: “The idea of the No to Hull Tigers campaign is to convince the owner to change his mind on rebranding the club as ‘Hull Tigers.’ “We’ve been Hull City AFC throughout our 109-year-history and we’re not comfortable with the name change to either 'Hull City Tigers' or Hull Tigers'.

“Having ‘Association Football Club’ as part of the club name is important for Hull as the city itself is widely considered to be a ‘rugby town’. “We do think the name change is not an idea that has been properly thought through.”

Gretton insisted, however, their campaign is not designed as a protest against Dr Allam’s ownership of the club and stresses fans’ groups are grateful to the 74-year-old for what he has done for their side. But Gretton is not convinced by Allam’s claim that the name ‘Hull Tigers’ would improve the club’s marketing power.

“There has been talk that this campaign is against what Dr Allam has done for the club but it’s very well recognised he has put in a lot of money since he took over, which we are grateful for,” he added. “This is not in any way an ‘anti Allam’ or ‘Allam out’ campaign.

“To Dr Allam’s credit he has taken this meeting with ourselves and other Hull City supporters’ groups and that shows he is willing to engage with fans. “He’s the owner of the club and he wants to grow the brand. We do not have any problem with that at all. “It’s been said a few times that ‘Hull Tigers’ would be a much more acceptable worldwide brand but there has not been evidence produced to show this is the case. I’ve not seen any work that proves the new name would be more marketable. “There has not been the proper consultation in our view.”

http://www.sportsdirectnews.com/pre...e-change-not-thought-through.php#.UnO5_flSiSp

 

Mostly.

 

Obviously.