This from The Bring Back United Group:
In conversation, we realise our differences. A variety of ‘first home games’, versus Darlington, Bristol City, Forest Green…take your pick. ‘First away game?’ Leicester in ‘99, Shrewsbury, Rushden. Taken along by our parents, our uncles, grandparents, passing the thing they love, that we love, from one generation to the next. The thing that links us? That binds us? “United”.
Since Hereford United formed in 1924 the club has been through many highs and lows, with many of those highs being associated with the FA Cup, the most famous being Hereford United’s FA Cup 3rd Round 2-1 victory over Newcastle United in 1972, immortalised by Ronnie Radford’s rocket to make the game all square. References to Hereford United’s greatest day rightly remain prominent at Edgar Street to this day, with the latest generation of Hereford fans able to hear the previous generations reminisce over Hereford United memories of the past, including in Radford’s bar.
It is our aim to give both current & future generations of Hereford fans the chance to create, and eventually reminisce over, Hereford United memories of their own, ensuring the Hereford United name remains alive a century on from the formation of the football club.
Like most lower league clubs, we as a club have faced many financial difficulties over the years, with financial prudence remaining a key challenge for the current board of directors. In 2014 we unfortunately reached a crisis point at the club, leading to the demise of Hereford United as a legal entity, leaving us to reform and to restart in the Midland Football League, under a newly created limited company.
One of the Football Association’s key stipulations as the club reformed in 2015 was that the Hereford United name could not be used for the following 5 years. This period has now elapsed, and as a result we are calling for the restoration of our rightful name, Hereford United. With that would come the retirement of ‘Hereford FC’, with the recognition that it was a necessary chapter in the club’s long and illustrious history, but one that should now be brought to a close. This, we believe, reflects the view of a significant majority of fans.
We would like to work with all relevant parties to make this happen. On the theme of financial prudence, we are keen to address the anticipated ‘financial burden’ a name change back to Hereford United would bring, and stress that any name change should not impact the football club’s cash flow, or take any funds away from the playing budget, or any other areas of the club.
To summarise, previous estimates suggested a figure of £30,000+ to complete the name change & associated tasks: we strongly disagree with this, and our analysis currently shows a cost of around a third of the published figure. This analysis has been submitted to the club for their feedback & continues to be worked on meticulously, to ensure that they are accurately represented to fans. We have waited long enough to restore our rightful identity, but are not here to try and force through a name change with outstanding question marks or in a way that would put the club at risk.
With a clear costing and with the agreement of the board, we propose that a specific fundraiser could be carried out to meet any costs associated with the name change. We believe that the desire to see the return of “United” is more than sufficient for the requisite funds to be raised easily.
With the fans covering any costs
associated with a return to Hereford United, we will have unlocked a real
commercial opportunity for the club. This would lead to an increase in
merchandise sales, as fans look to get their hands on authentic Hereford United
items once again.
A few fans have argued that by donating to one cause, it takes from another. In this case, putting into a fundraiser for a name change may mean ‘taking’ from, say, a squad builder. We feel as a one-off fundraiser, fans would not reduce their squad builder contribution, but contribute separately further funds to the name change fundraising. It has been asked “Why not just put any name change donations into the squad builder instead?”, but do you put all of your disposable income into any charity you currently donate to? The same applies here, we all give money for different causes throughout our lives, and donating to one cause does not necessarily mean stopping a contribution to an existing cause.
We’ve all been in similar situations; the beach in Tenerife maybe, or the North London kebab shop, perhaps taking the train home after a match and you’re asked “what’s that shirt mate?”. “Hereford” you respond. “Ah nice one…Ronnie Radford, Hereford United”. It’s Hereford United that are famous; our club, our past and our future.
We are standing at a crossroads in the history of this football club and we can be, we should be, known as the generation who brought back that famous name.
You may have noticed we recently ran a
free to access indicative poll to gauge the opinion within the fanbase regarding
if they would be in favour of the club reverting the name back to Hereford
United.
The poll ran for 1 month with 844 participants, with 76.3% of all participants polling in favour of a name change reverting back to Hereford United.
We are also keen to engage further with all fans, keeping an open forum approach to all discussions. Therefore we welcome any fan with questions or suggestions to get in touch here; BringBackUnited@gmail.com
Q&As will be published via social media platforms. We have also created a set of FAQs which we have collated to date via fan discussion, and these are also due to be published via social media platforms.
We have felt a lot of support & excitement generated over the last month associated with a potential name change, and also trepidation from others, who are still feeling the sting from the past. We hope the above starts to alleviate concerns.
Q: Hereford United Supporters Trust have already had a vote, why do it again?
A: The previous vote saw a very low turnout in the fan vote (183 participants).
The vote was also done during a period where the club overall had it's lowest
fan engagement, demonstrated by the attendances at the time.
We have recently run a free-to-access poll to gauge fan opinion on the subject, and with a larger data set (844 participants), there was a 76.3% majority in favour of a name change to Hereford United.
Q: How is a vote triggered?
A: This can be triggered by shareholders of Hereford FC Limited. Hereford United Supporters Trust (HUST) is the largest shareholder with 50% of shares. We plan to trigger a vote of the HUST membership once we have completed a thorough cost analysis and discussed this with the boards of both Hereford FC and HUST.
Q: How would a name change vote become successful?
A: 75% of the votes cast need to vote in favour (i.e. if some people abstain, less votes are needed for the motion to pass. Therefore in any scenario it is required that HUST shares are used to vote for a name change. We strongly encourage all fans to therefore sign up to HUST to ensure this happens. We will release a short sign-up guide in the coming weeks.
Q: Why weren't these costings disputed
at the time?
A: The proposed costings from the
football club were released at the same time as the Hereford United Supporters
Trust (HUST) provided the voting link for the name change. Whilst they were
queried by fans, there was insufficient time to analyse the costings &
raise any resulting queries.
To successfully revert the football club name to HUFC, there would need to be a shareholder vote within the football club, where 75% of votes cast need to vote in favour of a name change.
The complete list of shareholders
& no. of shares they own are included below. (Source: Companies House).
