Bristol Rovers autocratic and dictatorial owner and chairman Nick Higgs may not be the easiest person in the world to warm to, not least given his abysmal record since he took over the club, but at least he hasn’t changed the name of Bristol Rovers to, say, Bristol Pirates. Well, not yet anyway, so credit him with that, at least. That’s not the case at Hull City.
Assem Allam, a 75 year old businessman, bought the club when it was on its knees in 2010 and has since expressed a desire to rename the club to Hull Tigers. Allam feels it will help the club “go global”. in 2014, the FA Council blocked a move to change the name but now an independent panel has “set aside” that decision, clearing the way for Assam to try again.
When Allam says he wants to “go global”, in reality he means one thing: he can see a shedload of money by a simple change to the club’s name. No longer will Hull City be a passing member of the Premier League, who occasionally play the likes of Manchester United and Chelsea, but they will themselves be a worldwide brand, loved by people who love the name Tigers much more than boring old City.
Many supporters are opposed to the wanton destruction of the club’s history because although they don’t own it in terms of bricks and mortar, it’s their club and the owners are but passing guardians whose purpose is to pass it on the next generation. Well, football used to be like that, but increasingly at the top level ‘our’ club is no such thing. Unlike in Germany, easily the best league in Europe (there: I’ve finally admitted it), where many clubs in the Bundesliga are owned by supporters, our clubs are owned by rich oligarchs and corporate billionaires. You can hardly call them clubs these days.
Allam has threatened that if he doesn’t get his way, he will stop investing in the club; hardly the attitude of someone who speaks for the fans. ‘It’s my club and if I want to change the name, I’ll do it. I can make lots of money if I do that. History doesn’t matter’, he might as well say. In effect, by riding roughshod over the feelings of its supporters, he’s effectively said that already.
In terms of ownership and accountability, football fans are fighting a game they have probably lost already and there are probably enough people who don’t give a toss that they have no say in its ownership and decision-making. Perhaps there is a different mentality in the UK than in Germany, where we don’t really care who owns our football clubs as long as we get a good ‘product’.
Perhaps, we really don’t care who owns our club. Perhaps the top German clubs and the likes of AFC Wimbledon are the exceptions, not the rule, where people regard the club as theirs and demand a say in how it is run. Perhaps Manchester United fans really don’t mind the hundreds of millions that have flowed out of Old Trafford since the Glasers’ leveraged purchase of the club and Manchester City fans don’t worry about being owned by Middle Eastern oil billionaires. As long as they win, eh?
I imagine some Rovers supporters’ hearts skipped a beat when the local newspaper reported that Mr Higgs had been touting the club in the middle east in the unlikely event that he might be able to secure ‘investment’. That all came to nothing, so there is no immediate danger of Bristol Pirates anytime soon.
Oh, by the way. Do you know why the original decision of the FA Council to refuse to allow Hull to change there name was set aside by the independent panel? Because it placed too much weight on objections from supporters. So that’s the riff raff on the terraces put in their place, then.
