It's rather uncommon for football clubs to adopt North American-style team nicknames, but one chairman of an English club would like to change that, much to the chagrin of the club's supporters.
Hull City chairman Assem Allam, a 74 year old Egyptian-born businessman, would like the see the team called Hull Tigers.
The 109 year old football club have officially been Hull City Association Football Club for the entirety of their existence, and have only been nicknamed the Tigers by virtue of their traditional black and amber kits, though after the organisation was re-registered as Hull City Tigers, Ltd. in August, it looks like they'll literally be the Tigers soon.
Hull's fan group, City Til We Die, wrote on their website, "Our group has already had extensive contact with key figures at the FA, and we anticipate they will take a dim view... of this announcement. We remain puzzled that Dr Allam cannot distinguish between the name of his holding company and the football name of the club he owns.
Until he registers a new name with the Football Association, the club remains Hull City AFC. His belief that we are already called Hull City Tigers, a name ripe for shortening, is therefore spectacularly ill-judged and erroneous. Let us be clear – Dr Allam cannot change the name of the club without approval of the FA, who in turn require consultation with fans."
After earning promotion from the Championship last year, the Premier League side are aiming to stay there after the club made it to the top flight from 2008-10, only to see relegation after the 2012 season.
Dr Allam said
in a statement on the club's website
, "Having been deprived of opportunities to acquire the stadium freehold, which would have enabled us to create the infrastructure in the surrounding area, we will now need to focus on generating commercial income from elsewhere. A shorter club name will hopefully enable us to do so, with a stronger, quicker marketing impact all over the world.”
If Hull did officially adopt 'Tigers' as a club name, they would at least be joining some fine company, with Major League Baseball's Detroit Tigers recently having played in the 2012 World Series and the sport's 2013 semi-finals and a whopping four American college football Tigers ranked top-20 nationally – the University of Missouri, Auburn University, Clemson University and Louisiana State University.
And it could give them a good excuse to wear these boots. (Nevermind that lions and tigers are different. This is about branding.)
It does seem unlikely, though, that would bring much solace to supporters.
