Hull City owner Assem Allam has threatened to pull his money out and walk away from the club if he is prevented from changing their name to the Hull Tigers.
Allam remains determined to pursue his belief that Hull will be more marketable with a different name and able to attract better sponsors, even though fans have reacted furiously to the proposal. It is also not the good marketing idea that he thinks it is despite his insistence that the club’s historic name is a ‘lousy identity’.
Hull City owner Assem Allam has threatened to pull his money out and walk away from the club if he is prevented from changing their name to the Hull Tigers.
Allam remains determined to pursue his belief that Hull will be more marketable with a different name and able to attract better sponsors, even though fans have reacted furiously to the proposal. It is also not the good marketing idea that he thinks it is despite his insistence that the club’s historic name is a ‘lousy identity’.
The Football Association are considering whether to allow the name change, but Allam has been stung by the criticism he has received.
Rather than scrap the idea, the Egyptian businessman, who owns an industrial generator manufacturer and has lived in Hull for 40 years, has warned he will quit if fans do not accept his decision.
Speaking to Sky Sports News, Allam said of the opposition: ‘No one on earth is allowed to question my business decisions. I won’t allow it. I can give you my CV to give you comfort, for what I do in business, what I have achieved, but for someone to come and question me is not allowed.’ No false modesty there then.
‘I’m here to save the club and manage the club for the benefit of the community. It will never, never be the other way round – that the community manage it for me. But if the community say go away, I promise to go away within 24 hours.’
Allam added he would also go away within 24 hours if the name change is rejected by the FA, whose council has absolute discretion to decide.
Allam did not explain the terms on which he would walk away, given that the club is heavily indebted to him or how he could protect his investment if he departed at short notice.
Having taken the club in financial difficulties in December 2010 and lent £41m immediately, Allam’s company loans – charged at 5% interest – were up to £72m by 31 July 2013, the date of the recent accounts. Allam ran a wage bill of £26m in the Championship, despite the club’s income totalling only £11m, so achieved promotion to the Premier League making a loss of £26m.
Some believe that much of Allam’s motivation stems from his dispute with Hull City Council over its refusal to sell him the freehold to the KC Stadium. Allam wishes to develop a leisure park on the site and the name change is a way of disassociating the club from Hull City Council.