A relegated Premier League team with huge parachute payments should be a promotion favourite, but Hull City are being drained of life by their Egyptian owners.

The yo-yo nature of Hull City and Queens Park Rangers recent fortunes mean our paths cross infrequently — just six league meetings since 2008. Probably just as well. A flurry of meetings between 2005 and 2007 bred considerable contempt, with Hull’s first match in the Championship on the opening day of 2005/06 marred by chants about that summer’s bomb attacks on the London tube network.

That afternoon showed nobody in a good light. A section of the Hull crowd for thinking it was an appropriate thing to sing about (the chant itself, ‘town full of bombers’, also ignored the fact the attackers came from Yorkshire) and a section of the QPR support for overreacting. Newspapers were only too pleased to publish the completely untrue additional allegation that the home fans had sung “not enough Londoners died” (good luck naming that tune). Football has long had this problem with tribalism where supporters will be as deeply hurtful, unpleasant and inappropriate to each other just because. Hull City fans pointed out they’d endured years of “you’re going down with your trawlers” chants in the grim and distant past. Nobody came out of it well.

No love lost then, but you can’t help but look at Hull City in the present day and — as with Blackburn, Forest, Blackpool, Orient and any number of other clubs happily handed over to rich men to mismanage either incompetently or maliciously — have a deal of sympathy. This is a club being run as a dictatorship by the Allam family which at times, for several years now, has sought to deliberately antagonise and alienate the club’s supporters and the city it plays in.

Outside Kingston upon Hull, it’s Assem Allam’s insistence that the club should be renamed as Hull Tigers that caught the public attention. The somewhat questionable theory that a club in existence since 1904 suddenly cannot possibly compete in the modern game under its current name has been through two separate FA hearings and appeals and — thankfully, in a rare moment of the football authorities in this country doing the right thing by the paying public — been kicked out each time. In the strange fantasy land the club’s Egyptian owner exists in, millions of Far Eastern supporters desperately itching to support Hull City if only it was named after some sort of fucking animal have been left disappointed.

Allam has responded by basically making the change anyway through stealth. The club’s official website is taglined “the official site of The Tigers” and includes links to Tigers TV, Tigers Leisure and a charity protecting tigers in the wild. The only mention of the word ‘City’ anywhere on the home page is through an associated Twitter feed. The club’s Facebook page is headlined “Hull Tigers” with an address ending in facebook.com/hulltigersofficial. The URL of the official site itself is hullcitytigers.com and there is no mention of ‘City’ in its banner — just a badge, which features a picture of a Tiger and the club’s formation date. Press releases, team sheets and statements refer to the club as Hull Tigers, The Tigers or Hull Tigers Ltd.

But it’s the club’s KCOM (formerly KC) Stadium that actually lies at the heart of all this.

Home sweet home

Hull was once famous for its cream telephone boxes. It used the sale of its publicly owned telephone operator, Kingston Communications, to the private sector to fund developments all over a city which is regularly - lazily - stereotyped as one of the worst in the country but has improved immeasurably in recent times and was named the UK City of Culture for 2017 to much unfair derision.

One of those developments was the construction of a community stadium in the city’s West Park primarily to enable Hull City and rugby league side Hull FC to move out of their respective dilapidated grounds short walks away on the other side of the Anlaby Road. Publicly owned, built at a cost of £44m and opened in 2002, the stadium has been a springboard to significant upturns in fortunes for both teams — Hull City were a Third Division side when they moved in, Hull FC had been so financially destitute before their crowd-doubling move to the new venue they’d had to merge with Gateshead Thunder just to survive. It has also brought significant stadium concert acts to the city over the years. As new grounds go, it’s a beautiful design and perfectly located.

Assem Allam likes it very much as well. He’d like to make it bigger (a second tier can be added to the East Stand to match the West) and use the large rubble car park behind its North Stand (home of the famous Hull Fair) as the site for a retail village filled with all the zero hours contracts Sports Direct can offer the good people of West Hull. He’d like to do all this for the benefit of the city and the club, you understand, out of the goodness of his heart and would therefore be jolly grateful if Hull City Council would just turn the keys to the stadium over to him for a nominal fee so he can get to work with his very charitable offer to build hugely profitable personal projects on publicly owned land.

The council, meanies that they are, haven’t been so keen to just let some private businessman have a civic asset for a quid though. It’s this refusal that has set in motion a train of flagrantly antagonistic behaviour from the owners towards the Hull City supporters, the rugby club and the city as a whole. This conduct continues to this day under Assem Allam’s son Ehab, who now controls the business thanks to his father’s ill health and has further exacerbated a situation which saw City playing Premier League games in front of thousands of empty seats last year having won promotion at a Wembley play-off final for which they sold a quarter of their ticket allocation.

Allam Snr first of all responded by threatening to move City out of Hull altogether, and would stand in fields near the village of Melton clutching blueprints for another new stadium all of his own while the Hull Daily Mail took pictures for another of his “don’t push me” press stunts. Then came the name change bid, which he said would have to go through for Hull to remain competitive and if it didn’t he would immediately withdraw all his backing from the club and cut it adrift with no money within 24 hours. He told supporters who formed a “City till I die” movement against the proposal that they could “die whenever they wanted”.

Initially the natives were sympathetic towards the dear leader. City were performing superbly on the field under the management of Steve Bruce. Supporters enjoying the football, the victories, the performances, the Premier League, the FA Cup final and the signings Allam’s money financed cautioned against rocking the boat too much. David Burns, ordinarily a combative presence and excellent broadcaster on the local BBC Radio Humberside station, would conduct sycophantic, puff-piece interviews with Allam, referring to him as “sir” throughout. Allam has behaved throughout as if his initial investment in the club and new players should give him absolutely free reign to do whatever the hell he likes with it and for a while, when results on the pitch were good, people, by and large, agreed with him.

But with no name change, and no keys to the stadium, things have only got worse as time has gone on and the mood has changed considerably.

Malicious

The ownership of Hull City comes hand in hand with a seat at the top of the independent Stadium Management Company (SMC) which oversees the running of the stadium and its accounts. The Allams have abused this position on multiple occasions since being refused ownership of the stadium.

The adjacent Airco Arena, built at the same time as the stadium and also under the control of the SMC, was a hard-floored sports hall home to a dozen local sports clubs and teams including netball, basketball, hockey, gymnastics, trampolining and wrestling clubs for people of all ages, able-bodied and disabled. The Allams, without planning permission or warning, effectively evicted all of them when they dug the floor up and replaced it with a synthetic grass surface so Hull City’s academy could use it. The council failed with a court action against them despite still technically owning the building, and the move contradicting the lease conditions, but you can judge for yourself the morality of evicting wheelchair basketball teams and kids trampolining clubs from a sports hall built with public money so your youth team has somewhere to go when it rains.

The SMC has also engaged in open conflict with the stadium’s other tenant, Hull FC — a club currently owned by former Hull City chairman Adam Pearson. FC, who the Allams say have a very favourable rental agreement signed 12 years ago when they moved from the Boulevard a mile away, have found one thing after another chucked their way by their landlord.

FC are unable to play home games in June, the height of their season, because the SMC insist the pitch needs to be worked on. Second at the start of the month this time around, they slipped to fifth after successive defeats in consecutive away games at Castleford, St Helens and Leeds. When they returned home last summer after their enforced exile they found the pitch had been shortened to such an extent the grass now doesn’t stretch to regulation Super League distance and space has to be pinched between the 30 and 40 metre lines. Allam also deemed it appropriate to build temporary squash courts over one end of the field and stage a tournament there in front of nearly two dozen paying spectators during the rugby season — when Hull FC returned for the next home game they found the area of the pitch that had sat under the courts was just solid bare earth as a result, right in the middle of the in-goal area.

The Allams may be allowed to destroy the pitch, but that luxury does not stretch to all employees. Two groundsman who’ve worked for City and FC respectively for most of their adult lives are trying to crowdfund a legal challenge having been sacked on the field after a recent rugby match for “gross misconduct” — one is accused of moonlighting as FC’s kitman, the other of ordering too much grass treatment product amidst various other trumped up bollocks.

The Allams also previously ordered the removal of all Hull FC memorabilia from the walls of the stadium that is meant to be their home ground - including the pictures of Johnny Whiteley from the Johnny Whiteley suite which were replaced with ones of Steve Bruce -
unless Hull FC agreed to pay a five-figure sum, on top of their rent, to have them there. They argued that Hull City paid for their pictures to be displayed so Hull FC should do the same, but given the same people own Hull City and the SMC that's rather like passing money from your right hand to your left hand.

The SMC has quoted Hull FC such extortionate rates to play friendly games at the stadium that Richard Whiting — a utility back of ten years' standing at the club — and one of the game’s modern greats, Gareth Ellis, have both had to stage their testimonial matches as away games at Featherstone and Wakefield instead.

Hull FC were informed a fortnight before the start of last season that the SMC was withdrawing cash at the turnstile admissions, despite the majority of non-season ticket holding rugby league fans across the country doing exactly that. Hastily arranged kiosks and tables have had to be erected to sell tickets in the car park. Having reached this season’s Challenge Cup semi-final Hull FC were the only one of the four teams unable to sell tickets over the phone or online, or indeed from the box office at the stadium, because the SMC would charge them for the privilege. Supporters camped out on garden chairs all night after a recent game with Wakefield to buy theirs over the counter at one of the ground’s sports bars the following day.

Once inside, the Hull FC fans have found their beer price has gone up to £4.20 a pint, while Hull City's has stayed the same — a fan going to the rugby on Friday will pay more for the same pint from the same pump than he would the following day at the football.

Like I say, a section of City support had been happy to go along with this sort of behaviour as long as the team was doing well and playing in the top flight. There’s not much love lost between City and FC either for various small-minded, petty reasons. But their patience has long since run dry as well.

Absent friends

Last summer the Allams and the SMC revealed a new approach to season tickets. Instead of the standard season pass, City fans now have to buy a membership which vice-chairman Ehab Allam heralded at the time as a new dawn. He said: “For too long, the price of football in this country has been much too high. This new scheme will at least ensure the same cannot be said of Hull.”

Problem was, not only did the scheme mean huge amounts of fans would have to relocate to different parts of the stadium or face a big price hike, it also abolished concession tickets. Teenagers attending games without adults faced eye-watering price rises. The lack of discounts for children, the elderly or the disabled extends to match by match ticket sales and away fans — contrary to Premier League and Football League rules. It’s been so successful that with thousands upon thousands of City fans no longer attending games, even in the Premier League, the upper tier of the West Stand now no longer opens for every game. The average attendance last season, in the top division, was 5,000 short of capacity.

Those who do still attend were given brief hope of Premier League salvation when Marco Silva (written off as some foreign nobody by luminaries such as Paul Merson despite a formidable record in Portugal and Greece) put in a sterling effort trying to keep them up. Given Hull only had a dozen senior players contracted when August rolled round last year it’s astonishing they ran it as close as they did. Silva has since left for Watford to be replaced by former Russian national team boss Leonid Slutsky who has spent the last six months living in England and learning English in an attempt to nail a job here.

The Allam’s do seem quite adept at appointing a manager, twice now from leftfield. But supporters believe they’re asset stripping and draining the club in the absence of anybody willing to buy it from them. Mo Diame, Robert Snodgrass and Jake Livermore were all sold for big money last season. Harry Maguire fetched £17m from Leicester this summer but Curtis Davies and Tom Huddlestone have both been flogged to Derby on the cheap — Huddlestone, bizarrely, had a release clause of just £2m and said cryptically that he’d happily have stayed at Hull if Derby had bid three weeks previously but was suddenly keen to get out. Josh Tyman, a youth team product who looked adept at Premier League level, has gone to Stoke on a free amidst talk that Hull’s contract extension offer to one of their own was derisory, if indeed it was made at all. Excellent Scottish full back Andy Robertson has gone to Liverpool for £8m.

Despite the considerable income from sales, the huge amount of Premier League television money received last season, and a £46m parachute payment for 2017/18, very little is being spent on reinforcements. A claim that Liverpool’s Kevin Stewart cost £8m sounds fanciful. Sebastien Larsson and Fraizer Campbell have arrived on frees. The Guardian’s investigative football reporter David Conn quotes sources close to the club saying the Allams aimed to make a £40m surplus from last season - either to put in the bank and make the club more attractive to a buyer, or to put in their bank by way of repayment for the £77m they previously invested when they thought they might be able to get the stadium for a quid. With BBC Radio Humberside now asking the sort of tough questions of the club lacking in the early Allam years, they’ve had their access to the commentary box to broadcast games live to fans who can’t or won’t go to games withdrawn.

The club’s relationship with its remaining supporters is beyond repair now. Four separate foreign consortiums have had a sniff around and moved on. A dozen more players left during the summer — Alex Bruce seemed to imply he was told of his release via the club’s Twitter account.

The supporters can do nothing but vote with their feet, or hope for change at the top. The rugby club can only wait and see what their landlord has in store for it next. The Football League and Premier League could act but choose not to. And there are a dozen or more cases like this up and down the 92 professional clubs in this country at the moment.

Links >>> Official Website >>> Hull Daily Mail — Local Paper >>> Yorkshire Post — Local Paper >>> City Independent — Blog and Forum >>> Amber Nectar — Blog >>> Not 606 — Forum

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HCAFCChris added 16:57 - Aug 18 As a Hull City supporter for over 50 years, can I thank you for this article. It is the best summary I have seen of the current situation at our club. Someone has done a lot of research ( I learnt a few things about the Rugby side myself through reading it) and seems to really appreciate the apparent motivations and behaviour of the owners. Just one thing worth adding. The Allams are not a typical of foreign ownership in English football. Mr Allam arrived in Hull as a student in 1968, settled here and built a business in the area. He bought the club when it was in severe financial straits. These are the reasons why many supporters were initially willing to give him the benefit of the doubt. I do not know of anyone who actually agreed with proposals such as the name change or the potential stadium move. Once again thank you for your interest and excellent article. HCAFC Chris

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derbyhoop added 18:01 - Aug 18 Knowing your background, Clive, that is the most comprehensive summary you are likely to find outside (and inside) Humberside. Another sad tale of gross mismanagement. Maybe the football authorities should introduce a "fit and Proper" persons test?
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Anglian1904 added 18:06 - Aug 18 I rarely post comments on anything but I would echo the view of HCAFC Chris - yours is the best article I have read on the Allam saga. The sad thing is that these days there's no reason to expect the owners of a club to be fans - it's all about the money (and in this case, the extraction of it). And it's happening to more clubs. In our case it just seems laced with a vindictiveness that beggars belief. Good luck this season, if not tomorrow!

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Andre added 19:40 - Aug 18 Nice article which covered most of the events. Unfortunately it is riddled with factual errors and omissions. I really don't have time to name them all however, I will correct a few. 1) The name change was opposed by a vociferous minority who took it to the football authorities. As there was no prescedent new rules were created to oppose it. It was like breaking a law that didn't exist. All season pass holders were balloted before the last hearing. Despite the majority voting in favour of the change, the decision went in favour of the minority. 2) The Airco arena. I could write a tome on this debacle. However the judge said it all when he berated the Council for wasting £120,000 of taxpayers money on a frivolous suit. The Council lost huge and got ticked off in court for it 3) The Allam's saved Hull City from administration. Put £75M+ into it and gave Hull City its most successful ever period since it's foundation. Dr Allam puts more into philanthropic endeavours for the City, it's hospitals, sports clubs and many other things. Yet his PR company need shooting in my opinion. Do the research, it's all there. And when they choose to repay the massive loans, apparently it's wrong!!! 4) Radio Humberside and the Hull Daily Mail may well be out of favour. But why would owners give contracts to those that abuse them, those that steal from them and those that give nothing back? 5) The club would have been sold but for the failure of the PL fit and proper test. The FA found Readings Chinese owners to be acceptable. It will be interesting to see if the PL allow Reading in now with the same people they failed when Hull City had agreed the sale. If the fans really want the owners out then support the team, help them win and the buyers will return. But the way things are who would buy a club with fans who oppose every change? Not me. There are two sides to every bit of the article. Shame only one got told. Yet despite all the good the family has done, those that give little outside of abuse get heard time and again because it sells papers.

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BromleyHoop added 20:54 - Aug 18 Good to hear from Andre there. Give my regards to the other staff at Hull City FC press and social media Dept.
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AllamOutCityFan added 20:59 - Aug 18 From a Hull City fan. Clive, your article is brilliant and accurate; thanks for telling the story. I'm motivated to challenge Andre's comments, though, who, if not an Allam himself or family member writing under a pseudonym, clearly supports their regime enough to view it through rose coloured spectacles. Briefly, point 1, for example. I participated in that sham of a ballot which read like you can vote any way you want, but if you don't vote for our (the Allam's) proposal, you'll have your kneecaps broken; it was a disgrace, yet it was allowed. Point 2, like Clive said, eviction of local clubs. 3, yes the Alams started off well and they could still possibly redeem themselves by restoring the club's name and by having open, meaningful and respectful dialogue with fans but instead they seem hell bent on antagonising fans. If they have paid off their own loan, where is the communication of this? All fans seem to get is their own and others' calculations of what income they've got from various sources and nothing to show for it; surely gross mismanagement. 4) Get rid of the media that doesn't support your propaganda and get another in who will. 5) The Allams could have sold the club if they'd have wanted to; they've had years now since Mr. Allam Snr put it up for sale 'in 24 hours' after he didn't get his own way. I could say more if I had the time but I'll leave it at that.

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Northernr added 22:40 - Aug 18 Andre: 1) The name change was disgraceful and you know it. The survey you refer to, as I recall, was basically worded "do you want us to continue funding the club and buying loads of players (and change the name) or do you want the club to immediately be abandoned and left financially destitute?" 2) I very clearly state the council lost the court case, even though the action breached the lease. You ignore my point on the morality of what they did. 3) Saving the club does not give them a blank cheque to do whatever they like to it for the rest of time - particularly as the purchase was in part motivated by wanting to gain ownership of the publicly owned stadium and land. Does the very generous donations to various local bodies you mention include the £1m they stuck into Hull KR, just to further antagonise Hull FC? 4) Free and impartial press. Quite an important part of a democracy. Are you suggesting they should only allow access to newspapers and broadcasters who write and say nice things about them and Hull? If so that tells me everything I need to know about you. 5) Said the same about Reading's owners in the profile of them a fortnight ago. If the fans really want the owners out then support the team, help them win and the buyers will return. But the way things are who would buy a club with fans who oppose every change? Not me. Or put another way - keep turning up and handing over your money when they're obviously sucking money back out of the club. Who would do that? Not me.

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Andre added 23:35 - Aug 18 So, just to clarify. 1) If I refute the innacuracies then I must work for Hull City - Bromleyhoop. 2) The ballot threatened broken kneecaps / we won't mention that the judge ticked off the Council for having NO CASE / the Allams must tell us what they do with their money because we say so / they must talk to us despite all the abuse we give them daily / they should write off £75M+ and give the club away - because I say so. - AllamOutCityFan 3) You can't make any decisions I don't agree with / the action breached the lease (despite the court clearly saying it didn't and telling the Council off) / the most successful period in our history is incidental because the motivation was a land grab and giving money to Hull KR was just to piss Hull FC off - despite everything put into sport, education, hospitals..... / they should reward the HDM for abusing them at every turn with special access - Northernr Seriously guys, get over yourselves. I have supported Hull City since I was a lad and paid to watch games since my dad stopped having to do it for me. Yet I don't believe that this gives me the right to tell owners how to run the club. I pay to watch football and love the team. And that's why I refute the nonsense spouted here. You don't have a right to berate and demand. You have a right to turn up or don't. Or if you have £50M quid to spare, pony up and run it however you like. They'd probably take it now if you ask nicely.

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BromleyHoop added 00:35 - Aug 19 You haven't actually said that you don't work for the club 'Andre'.
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tigerfanian added 08:02 - Aug 19 Thanks for such an indepth article I hope you don't mind have shared it. It sums up the total despair I feel at supporting my club HULL CITY AFC . The Allams rescued our club and this can not Ve denied they should have been heroes but it is such a mess and the reason I am not at QPR this afternoon. Andre you may have some valid points but you surely cannot defend the change of name by stealth the name of Hull City is not even mentioned at the KCOM. As always CTID. Ian

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HCAFCChris added 08:12 - Aug 19 Can I apologise to all QPR fans that your website seems to have been taken over by City fans wanting to vent their frustrations. Obviously we want to see City do well today, but I wish you well for the rest of the season. ....but while I`m writing....come on Andre, you`ve got to admit that the wording of the ballot made any result completely bogus!
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Bodger added 09:09 - Aug 19 I spoke to Mr Allam on the phone and he called me a fart face and I called him a bum bum head then he crashed into my house and stole my bin.
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Andre added 09:10 - Aug 19 BromleyHoop - I do not and have never worked for the club. I'm just a fan who disagrees with those, especially CTID, who work against the club. tigerfanian - I honestly believe that the name change was turned into a circus when it wouldn't have made a shred of difference to anything. Changing a name changes nothing. You lose nothing. Change is part of all walks of life. We could have embraced it and celebrated the success we were having. Instead we are mired in protests about ridiculous things - some of which are based in racism (let's tell it like it is at least). And I am definitely not suggesting that it applies to you so please don't take offence. I genuinely dislike resistance to change for resistances sake or from jealousy or spike or any other negative emotions or traits. As for having City at the KCOM, I don't mind. I'm there to watch the football and shout at the ref when he gets things wrong like the best of them. The wording of the ballot simply said 'back us to run the club'. It wasn't unreasonable to ask the fans to do it. And the majority did. Yet they were overruled and new rules invented after the fact. That's not democracy, it's authoritarianism. HCAFC Chris - I get that I am a lone voice on here. And I like a good debate. But I don't. Relieve the authorities got it right. Or that it would have ended the animosity either way. Let's all just get behind the players. The politics of running a club should be left to those who are mad enough to want to own one and open themselves to the kind of abuse that fans are capable of. I love Hull City. But even if I won a very big lottery, I wouldn't buy them or any club. I'd take a peaceful life over that any day.

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Andre added 09:13 - Aug 19 Readingback that was 'spite' and 'believe'. But I'm not going to rewrite if all now!
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RBlock added 09:15 - Aug 19 I can foresee Andre telling everyone to "die whenever they like" soon.
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Davidht added 09:31 - Aug 19 Andre what an extraordinary person you are, you seem to desire a peaceful life and presumably to be left alone to watch the football, but you seemed to be very determined to be provocative as possible by coming on another club's website with long statements of dubious veracity. Odd.
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Andre added 09:39 - Aug 19 Davidht - sorry mate but the article slagging our owners was written on your website. Where else would I comment on it? And the 'dubious veracity' was in the original article I'm afraid. Just correcting errors and giving another point of view. Happy to sign off your site though.
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Northernr added 09:56 - Aug 19 You haven't actually pointed any errors out yet, just stuff you disagree with or other things you think merited a mention but we didn't.
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Hutchy_HCAFC added 10:11 - Aug 19 Andre - the loaded season ticket poll did not return a "majority" for the name change. It was a narrow victory but yes vote was less than half the votes cast.
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francisbowles added 10:59 - Aug 19 And we thought things were bad at our place! Thanks Clive and Hull City fans, very interesting (and scary) piece.
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Andre added 11:07 - Aug 19 francisbowles - the grass ain't always greener. 😉 And Hull is far from the only club where the fans hate either the owners or the manager. But we all struggle on in the name of football. Be lucky.
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walshy15a added 12:40 - Aug 19 If he does`nt work for Dull Tigers is Andre related to the Allams ?
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leonardrossiter1974 added 13:51 - Aug 19 Clive what a fantastic article. Thankyou for so succinctly capping what has been without question our most successful period against a backdrop of utterly abhorrent ownership. I enclose just a few snippets below of other Allam nonsense that in part helped me write a major academic piece of life under the Allam regime. A simple google search of just a sample of the stuff Hull City fans have had to endure as an absolute and direct consequence of Messrs Allam jnr and snr is available at the click of a button. I liked the name Hull City AFC and felt after 110 years there was still mileage in it. Someone else felt Hull Tigers was better. Thing is many others felt the same as me. Many formed an opposition group (CTID) city til I die being one ohms, but arguably becoming the largest opposition group (mainly to the name change) and laters became the HCST Hull City Supporters Trust. Many hundreds gave up their free time to fight in opposition to it and as a result we can all still support Hull City AFC. I accept that despite this a smaller minority would have accepted Hull Tigers Ltd or a variation of, for the unsubstantiated possibility of a 7 figure financial return (not guaranteed) based (loosely) on a Harvard business paper that did not relate to football, and that those unlikely monies would not (Allam agreed) necessarily be directly invested in the team. But still. One man belligerently didn't agree again and opposed those fans and the F.A and dragged us through it. (F.A arbitration) Again. Despite promising ( on camera and in print) he wouldn't. That man also promised to make Hull City for the fans with tickets 'free as the air you breathe', but actually doubled them and then kept going. This peaked at £50 a ticket for Category A home seats with 'cheaper' seats available from £35. Hull City AFC (2015/16) officially had the highest season ticket pricing in the 2nd tier. Cheap air, that. Stealth rebranding. Now if you think 2 years of fight through the F.A earns the right to keep Hull City on communications, badges or marketing, then you are wrong. Every single item of Hull City match day and external branding has eradicated 'City' and in most instances Hull. Our badge. Ffs. After a groundswell of public opinion from 92 league clubs reached Political debate through the minister of sport in December 2015 and our prime minister in February 2016 which culminated in Liverpool fans walking out in protest the 77th minute at a perceived £77 ticket, as a result the £30 away ticket initiative is brought in. One (vice) chairman publicly opposes it, in the press. Ours. Ehab Allam. Quoted as Saying that any black market profiteering should be his right. Premier League Away direct £200k money. Trousered. Or, even better the Allams contemptuously used it to beef up the experience of away fans at the KC (we won best away experience) as a result after Allam snr told City fans to stay away and / or die. The Fixed and highly questionable (some say illegal) voting scheme to the name change. The press after the event proved there were bought votes, lost votes, rigged votes, no simple option to say 'no'. So much so a main match day sponsor took to hiding a slogan and banner under his suit ( all anti Allam protesters were banned from coming in or searched prior to ground entry ) and displayed it at the kick off parade. He was manhandled and thrown out of the stadium. Removing disabled concessions. Against the fans consultation they added Idiotic, farcical and small time post goal music / light displays including before kick off. Refusing to allow our promotion winning team an open bus parade around the city of Hull, instead giving people under 24 hours to get tickets to do a behind close doors party. Result only a few thousand celebrating promotion to premier league. The Airco arena PR and community group disaster, despite it arguably having a benefit to our academy set up playing on a fake grass pitch with only 6 or more similar bloody surfaces they could have used within the city. The rationalisation of staff and services at the KC(om) stadium. Poor turnstiles, major queues. High ticket postage costs, or a cost per ticket to physically collect in person at poor times when Allam actually puts someone in the ticket office. ( this now refers you to 2 electrocic machines as 2 were currently not working on opening day of 2017 season. I was number 88 in the matchday queue for this service which took 45 mins to go down - the stewards say that more stewards are now employed to help with the tickets fiasco than the turnstiles operators who used to let us in) Employing 4 ticket staff to cater for a queue of well over 5000 people for the F.A cup final leading to old men and children queueing for 14 hours. Being told I can die. I'm happy to debate the pro's and cons of the membership scheme. I think increasing ticket prices for concession groups such as retired / students / disabled and children is morally wrong. I am also willing to debate whether (home) crowds of 15,000 in a season were we were consistently in the top 4 (2015/16) and were over 8,000 fans waved red cards suggests a few more fans feel disenfranchised also. Selling half our Play off final allocation. Over 17,000 chose to 'stay away' for the FA cup v Swansea match. Steve Bruce resigned as a direct consequence of Ehab Allam. Giving Mike Phelan funds 2 weeks before end of the transfer window leaving him with 12 fit senior players to start the 2016/17 premier league season. Then.... in January already with the smallest premier league squad you... Livermore sold Snodgrass Sold Bring in 6 loan players. Get relegated so all your loan players leave and you.., Davies sold Huddleston sold Tymon sold Jakupovic sold MaGuire sold Robertson sold Elmohamady sold So you then trouser a further £35m and you.... Sign a few frees and get loan players in meaning you have one of the smallest squads in the championship definitely with one of the lowest player ownership squads and you get your new manager to say the supermarket is shut whilst still courting offers for your players.., Utter utter shambles. As an ex resident of Shepherds Bush good luck to QPR, but on Hull City matters. Still questioning. Jason

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Davidht added 21:35 - Aug 19 Andre what are you doing on a QPR site arguing about Hull City. Bloody odd.
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whittocksRs added 13:50 - Aug 21 Andre – as Clive has asked you a few times, please outline exactly where his factual inaccuracies are. Not liking something and claiming it's wrong are two different things. And one dig, just because it's so wrong and so fundamentally misrepresents what it means to be a football club fan: changing the name of Hull City "wouldn't have made a shred of difference"? Can't believe you're a real supporter spouting that sort of nonsense. Good luck to Hull this season, they deserve better than Allam.

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