Hull City Tigers and 5 Premier League Owners Who Have Broken with Tradition

With Friday’s news that the owners  of Hull City Association Football Club (SPOILER ALERT: Don’t get attached to that name), Assem and Ehab Allam are going to change the club’s name to Hull City Tigers Ltd, as announced on hullcityafc.net (if you’re a betting man/woman, put your money on a change of domain name. )

Assem Allam told (the word “told” has been chosen in this sentence as it sounds very similar to “trolled”), according to Paul Baxter of The Hull Daily Mail:

Hull City is irrelevant. My dislike for the work "City" is because it is common. City is also associated with Leicester, Bristol, Manchester and many other clubs. In the commercial world, the shorter the name, the better. The more it can spread quickly. It is about identity. City is a lousy identity. Hull City Association Football Club is so long.

Under that logic, Bury and Clyde would have won the Champions League by now.

So after describing 109 years of history as a “lousy identity,” it’s fair to say Hull City fans (Omar Sharif and Sinitta alike) are pretty upset. Hull Blogger Rick Skelton says:

"Mr Allam's assertion that the name "Hull City" is irrelevant, that it's too common, is as disgusting a use of the English language as his new name for the club."

We can’t help but think if Hull City Tigers wanted to win the fans round, they could treat it like Mac OS X releases and change the name of the big cat they’re named after each season. This season, Hull City Tigers, next season Hull City Snow Leopards, and the season after, Hull City Ocelots.

Either way, the Hull faithful have their claws out for their owners, and it’s getting very catty. So when else have owners rubbed their fans the wrong way by disregarding tradition?

In June 2012, Cardiff City’s Malaysian owner Vincent Tan announced loads of good news for Cardiff fans:

• They are going to build a brand-new training ground.
• They are going to pay off the historical debt of £24million to Langston.
• They will provide provide manager Makly Mackay with substantial funds for transfers for the new season
• And they will explore the possibility of expanding Cardiff’s stadium.

All good news. So as fans rubbed their hands with glee at the thought of this cloudless silver lining, the owners quickly turned their heads to the side and said under their breath, hoping no one would notice, “oh yeah, and we might be changing the color of the home kit from Blue, which it has been since 1908, to red.”

“Wait. What?”

“Oh yeah, the kit thing? Yeah, that’s no big deal right though.”

Well, needless to say, it was a big deal. The fans of Cardiff, who are nicknamed the Bluebirds, were angry at the prospect of a new shirt color and an accompanying change of badge.

The investment and change of color did have some positives, Cardiff were promoted to the Premier League in their first season in red. However, this tinkering with the club’s identity might not have stopped there.

Fans again expressed their concern in February 2013 at the massive rebranding and dismissal of Cardiff’s traditions when Vincent Tan said in an interview he was considering changing the club’s name from Cardiff City to Cardiff Dragons.

The name change hasn't happened yet, but with Hull City Tigers in the Premier League, could it only be a matter of time? And then where will it stop? The Manchester Devils? The Chelsea Lions? The Arsenal Gunnersauruses?

But don’t think that Cardiff’s owners never consult the fans, after supporters were displeased with this season’s home kit, the club gave fans the chance to vote on the color of the home kit's shorts.

And blue wasn't an option.

Football fans, in general, don’t receive change very well. As Everton FC (surely soon to become "The Everton Toffees" or "The Liverpool Evertonians" or "Wigan Athletic version 2.0") found out when they tried (and succeeded) in changing the club’s crest in May of this year.

The new logo no longer incorporates the club’s motto “nil satis nisi optimum” which is Latin for “Nothing but the best is good enough” (possibly because, in reality, the club’s motto is “Nothing but finishing above Liverpool is good enough”) or those wreaths that were in the top left and right corners. But it does still have that sort of tower thing that was in the old badge and the club’s date of establishment, 1878.

The unveiling of the badge provoked an angry response from fans which still isn’t settled, with a petition which, at the time of writing, has been signed by over 24,000 Everton fans and lovers of wreath-incorporating-logos.

The club did say “sorry” for not consulting the fans properly...

...but went ahead and kept the new logo anyway.

Before Hull City AFC changed their name to Hull City Tigers, and undoubtedly setting themselves up for a terrible cross-promotion campaign with Disney when they eventually release another movie about Tigger, football writers thought they would never again use the phrase “eccentric Egyptian owner upsets fans” after Mohammed Al-Fayed sold Fulham Football Club to Shahid Kahn in July.

Al-Fayed found himself on the wrong side of Fulham’s fans in April 2011 when he decided to unveil a statue of the late pop star Michael Jackson, who’s only connection with the club is that he saw one match in 1999, outside of Fulham’s ground, Craven Cottage.

Fans said the statue (which actually looked more like Manchester United’s Nani, than Michael Jackson) had turned the club into a “laughingstock.”

So what was Al Fayed’s response to fans angry at the club honoring someone with a very tenuous connection with the club, when it could have instead built a statue commemorating one of the legends who played for Fulham?

"They can go to hell."

Last season, as part of Roman Abramovich’s campaign "to hire and fire every football manager in the world," Rafael Benitez was briefly appointed as “interim” manager after fan favorite Roberto Di Matteo was sacked for only winning Chelsea their first Champions League in the club's 10-year history.

Not only were Chelsea fans annoyed that Benitez was replacing a Stamford Bridge darling, but a few Chelsea fans had brought up an occasion when Benitez was Liverpool manager and he said:

Chelsea is a big club with fantastic players, every manager wants to coach a such a big team. But I would never take that job, in respect for my former team at Liverpool, no matter what. For me there is only club in England, and that’s Liverpool.

And they also happened to mention the time when Rafa questioned the passion of Chelsea fans, saying:

We don’t need to give away flags for our fans to wave – our supporters are always there with their hearts, and that is all we need. It’s the passion of the fans that helps to win matches – not flags.

Benitez received a hostile reception for his first game in charge against Manchester City. And, well for every game until he left, really.

To further endear himself to the fans, in a post-match press conference following a 2-0 FA Cup win over Middlesbrough, Rafa criticized the fans, claiming their behavior could cost the club a top-four finish.

The fans never really warmed to Benitez, even after he won them the Europa League.

Benitez is now Napoli manager and Jose Mourinho is the current next-ex-Chelsea manager.

If you are unfamiliar with the work of Newcastle United chairman, Mike Ashley, we can sum it up like this: He cares as much about the opinion of Newcastle United fans on Newcastle United as we care about the opinions of Piers Morgan on football.

In July 2007, Ashley completed the purchase of 100 percent of Newcastle United Football Club. And then, the fun started happening.

He was initially a hit with the fans; he didn’t wear the suits that owners usually wear at grounds opting for a replica kit instead. In fact, he didn’t sit where owners usually sat and took his seat in the stand with the fans. He even hired Toon Army legend Kevin Keegan as the club’s manager.

But the popular Keegan ended up storming out of the club because the club’s Director of Football, Dennis Wise, had been signing players without his permission. King Kev's departure marked the opening of the floodgates that was keeping a tsunami of shambolic events at bay. Here’s what followed:

• After fan upset at the Keegan fiasco, Mike Ashley said he was selling Newcastle United because the fans “want me out.” 
• He decided he wasn't selling the club three months later. 
• He oversaw Newcastle getting relegated to the Championship in 2009.
• He was ordered to pay Keegan £2million in compensation for mistreatment by the Premier League’s arbitration tribunal.
• He tried to sell the club again in August 2009.
• He decided he wasn't selling again two months later 
• He changed the name of the club’s stadium from “St James’ Park” to “sportsdirect.com @ St James’ Park Stadium”  to the “Sports Direct Arena.” Sports Direct are the sporting equipment retailing company that Ashley owns.
• He sacked the popular Chris Hughton as manager, who got the club promoted to the Premier League from the Championship and were at 11th in their first season back in the EPL at the time of the sacking.
• He allegedly “forced” star striker Andy Carroll to move to Liverpool and not replacing him.
• He gave Alan Pardew an eight-year-contract, which in football manager terms, is like living to your 300-years-old.
• He awarded the club’s shirt sponsorship to controversial company Wonga, who are accused of being ‘loan sharks’. Causing Papiss Cisse to initially refuse to wear a shirt with the company’s logo on.
• He hired Joe Kinnear as Director of Football, a man who seems to be trying his hardest to annoy Newcastle United fans, a man who contributed to their 2009 relegation, a man who seems to have no idea what any of the players are called, a man who seems have no idea what his own achievements are and a man who has already undermined chief scout Graham Carr, a man widely credited with the excellent signings the Toon Army have made, in blocking the transfer of FC Twente’s Douglas.
• He is reportedly trying to sell Newcastle again, according to Martin Hardy of The Independent.

But besides all that. Newcastle fans think Ashley’s doing a splendid job.