Cod Almighty | Diary

Is 'je suis Hull City' over the top or just plain unsayable?

17 March 2015

"An independent panel has ruled the decision 'cannot stand' and told the club they can try again [to change the name Hull City to Hull Tigers]. In its judgment, the panel found that the original ruling had placed too much weight on objections from supporters."

[From the BBC website, emphasis added]

The appeal panel is no doubt demanding consistency from the FA. Micrologists are hard at work in laboratories the land over, trying to detect the smallest influence of fans' opinion on any other significant decision taken by the FA since 1991.

In October, when the FA rejected the name change, Hull City owner Assem Allam told the BBC: "I have never been a football fan". It shows.

More questionable is his claim that "I am a community fan". "My dislike for the word 'City' is because it is common," he once said. The "common" name City (or Town) denotes that a club is not a global brand. The suffix 'city', attached to the name of the place, is precious. It shows that, whoever may hold the shares, or indeed the 'benign debt', the club belongs to the community it represents.

Middle-Aged Diary won't quite say you can't be a football fan without being a community fan. I will say you can't be a community fan if you don't respect the place of its sporting clubs in that community. The last time we heard such talk was around the turn of the century. Doug Everitt and Bryan Huxford's pipe-dreams of turning the Mariners into some kind of brand were a significant factor in getting us into our current state.

A tin ear for names seems to be common among clubs' self-proclaimed benefactors. It amazes me that the franchise which plays out of Milton Keynes has never thought to drop the word Dons. As it only makes sense as a pun on Wimbledon, keeping it is the equivalent of a car thief not thinking to change the number plates. It is helpful for the rest of us, I guess. They may as well play in black and white hooped shirts with masks and huge bags on their shoulders labelled 'swag'.

Mind you, Middle-Aged Diary is considering a name change himself. How about Yet another plug for the Grimsby anthology/Great GY XI poll Diary? Have a look at Neville Butt's team if you want something else to read.

The working title for the anthology, by the way, is Town.