Tottenham Hotspur badge: Fleet Spurs made to change their badge after 'heavy handed' approach from Tottenham

The Wessex League Division One's crest has been deemed too similar to Tottenham's

Tottenham Hotspur have forced community club Fleet Spurs to change their badge, as they sensed a bit of fowl play.

The Wessex League Division One club, though, said the felt "intimidated" from Tottenham’s lawyers "heavy handed" approach to make them remove the cockerel from their logo, as they said it was too similar to the one on the Premier League club’s crest.   

Tottenham said they had to protect the club's identity.

Fleet Spurs were set up in 1948 in tribute to the north London side by three supporters of the north London team, but there are no official links between the clubs.

Tottenham will allow the Hampshire club to keep the cockerel until they next change their kit.

A Spurs spokesman said: "If we do not take action to stop Fleet Spurs using our cockerel logo, it can undermine our ability to stop other unauthorised people who use our logo for commercial purposes, such as counterfeiters.

"We are very conscious that Fleet Spurs is a grassroots club. For this reason we have been very careful not to ask them to do anything that might incur costs.

"It was always the club’s approach to deal with this matter amicably and with a large dose of common sense."

Bryan Sheppard, chairman of Fleet Spurs, said: "We haven't got a penny to our name; we couldn't afford to fight it.

"It's been quite stressful, we just felt really intimidated by the heavy-handed approach.

"But I can see where they are coming from."