The weekend dossier: Name changes aren’t new but Assem Allam’s high-handed approach with ‘Hull Tigers’ has alienated supporters who might have been amenable

Hull owner Assem Allam wants to change the club’s name

On 17 February 1900 Newton Heath beat Small Heath 3-2 in the Football League Second Division. A calendar month later New Brompton defeated Thames Ironworks 3-1 in the then-powerful Southern League.

What happened to those teams? Well those fixtures would now be known as Manchester United v Birmingham City and Gillingham v West Ham United.

Assem Allam’s attempt to rebrand Hull City as Hull Tigers is not unique; name changes have been a feature of football since it began. Nor is he the first to do so for overtly commercial reasons. New Brompton’s switch to Gillingham in 1913, after 20 years with their original name, was done with the financial encouragement of Gillingham Borough Council, which had gradually swamped the village of New Brompton and wanted national recognition.

Small Heath’s switch to Birmingham appears to be another early attempt at gaining greater brand awareness, not that it would have been couched in those terms then, while Thames Ironworks became West Ham as they wanted to sign professional players and had thus outgrown their factory origins. Manchester United, incidentally, was chosen as the new name of Newton Heath in the wake of the club’s recovery from being placed into receivership.

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Many teams changed names in the game’s early years, often because clubs had moved beyond their origins as works or church teams, or come to represent a larger area than on their formation. But significant name changes in the last 100 years have been rare. Woolwich Arsenal dropped their geographical locator when the club moved north of the river in 1913 while The Wednesday added one a decade later. Several teams have changed from Town to City in line with their locality while Leyton Orient were Clapton Orient until 1946 and have also been plain Orient. Aside from the fiasco that led to Wimbledon becoming MK Dons, the only major change has been Headington United’s conversion to Oxford United in 1960, two years before their election to the Football League.

Which is one reason why Allam’s plan has met with such dissent. Fans are unused to name changes. Cricket and rugby (both codes) appear to have accepted various Bears and Bulls, Sharks and Spitfires, but football clubs are supposed to be United and City, Rovers and Wanderers, not Tigers like an American franchise operation. The other reason is the owner-chairman’s approach. He has acted like an old-school factory boss: “It’s my club, I’ll do what I want.”

Many a self-made millionaire has this view on life, as Cardiff City fans have found, but it is surprising Allam has been so high-handed given his long residence in a city which has a strong sense of self, from the white phoneboxes to its relatively isolated location. His suggestion to the Independent on Sunday that the City Till We Die protest group could “die as soon as they want” was appalling.

Back in the Edwardian era there was sufficient democracy at Small Heath for what was presumably a diverse group of shareholders to reject a suggestion that the club be called Birmingham City, settling instead for Birmingham. “City” was added in 1945. Similarly at New Brompton the shareholders, who appear to have been numerous, voted in the name change at an emergency general meeting, and then after the club had trialled the change for a season.

There is a degree of logic in Allam’s plan. Overspending linked to Hull’s last flirtation with the Premier League, 2008-10, ended with bankruptcy looming before Allam rescued them. Through Allamhouse Ltd he has since loaned (not given) £72m (at five per cent interest), bankrolling losses of £20m, £9m and £26m in successive seasons. Allam, notes the current Private Eye, can use these losses to reduce tax on profits by Allam Marine, but would rather turn a profit and cut that debt. Premier League TV income will help, but there may not be much left with a mushrooming wage bill to meet.

It is not just the club that is in the red. There is a reason Hull’s shirt sponsors are a company specialising in pawnbroking and payday loans. Last month the government’s Money Advice Service identified Hull as Britain’s most heavily indebted area, with 43 per cent of the population enduring serious financial problems. Clearly there is a limit to how much money, either individual or corporate, can be leveraged from this supporter base, especially as the KC Stadium is council-owned (another source of contention with Allam).

Allam is thus looking overseas. Yet while the Premier League TV coverage may be all-pervasive, most overseas fans follow England’s big clubs. Thus the thinking behind an eye-catching “Tigers” ID.

The club certainly need to spread the word. On Twitter they rank last in the Premier League, with 63,000 followers. But there is no obvious indication that being renamed Tigers will do the trick – it does not seem to have hugely increased the support bases of Castleford’s rugby league team or Leicester’s rugby union side. Success and television exposure drive support, especially overseas. Rather than call the club Tigers, Allam would be better off buying the most popular players in China, South Korea and Japan if that is his market.

Leaving aside doubts over the value of Allam’s re-branding, the gratitude felt towards him prior to this initiative, and the stranglehold he has over club finances, meant supporters might well have been prepared to consider a name change if they had been engaged with rather than dictated to. “Hull City Tigers” is not that outlandish, given the club have been nicknamed Tigers for more than a century. Fans appear to accept all manner of changes to club kits (such as a stripe-less Southampton, or Hull’s own tiger-print shirts of the 1990s).

But so autocratic has been Allam’s attitude it is hard to envisage any rapprochement. Which leaves the Football Association, who must agree the name change, consulting interested parties including supporters and, no doubt, its lawyers. Rule A3 (l) looks watertight. It states: “Council will use its absolute discretion in deciding whether to approve a change in a Club’s playing name.” But what if Allam threatens to withdraw his support if he does not get his way? Without his cash Hull City’s Tigers are as imperilled as the real thing.