FA Council recommended to reject Hull city name change

LONDON (Reuters) - Hull City owner Assem Allam's pledge to change the club's name to Hull Tigers next season suffered a setback on Monday when the Football Association was advised by its membership committee to reject the request.

"The FA can confirm its Membership Committee met on Wednesday (12 March) and has made a unanimous recommendation to The FA Council to reject Hull City's request to change their playing name to Hull Tigers from next season," a statement on the FA's website said.

The recommendation will now be discussed and voted upon at a full FA Council meeting on April 9 before which Allam can make another submission to change the Premier League club's name after 109 years.

Egyptian-born Allam, who bought his local club in 2010 having established successful businesses in the area, believes a change to Hull Tigers would help generate more revenue but his plan provoked fierce opposition from fans.

Allam has said he would walk away from the club if the FA turned down his request to change the name.

Hull face third tier Sheffield United in the FA Cup semi-finals next month.

(Reporting by Martyn Herman, editing by Pritha Sarkar)