Earlier today in the article comments, I and some other users got into a friendly linguistic tête-à-tête over the use of verb tenses when referring to football clubs, and the differences between British English and American English usage. It’s a topic that pops up every so often as people leave the site and new people start commenting. In that conversation, I admit that I waffle back and forth between “Tottenham is/Tottenham are” and that I basically just ask that readers “roll around in the linguistic mud” with me.
Well, speaking of linguistic mud, there’s a new piece in The Athletic (£) that states the club have asked the media not to refer to the club as “Tottenham,” but either as “Tottenham Hotspur” or “Spurs.” This insistence on the club’s official name is part of the brand refresh that was debuted last year with the slightly tweaked logo, new colorways, a return to the THFC lettermark, and refreshed fonts.
Now, if you’re reading this you’re likely to have one of two reactions. The first is to wonder what the big deal is — Tottenham Hotspur is a football club, Tottenham is a region in North London. Spurs being the brand that they are, it would make perfect sense for them to insist on the club’s full and complete name — Tottenham Hotspur — and not the town for which they reside. It’s a marketing thing, no different from Wolverhampton Wanderers not wanting to be referred to as “Wolverhampton,” but either the full name of the club or “Wolves.” The article also brings up Aston Villa, and how weird it’d be if people talked about watching “Aston” play, and the linguistic confusion by having two Premier League clubs in Manchester.
The other reaction is to get irrationally upset. How DARE the club police the use of its own name by football supporters! Isn’t this just another example of the club focusing more on the business enterprise and raising money than the wishes of the salt of the earth match going football supporters? I’ll call ‘em Tottenham if I want to! LEVY OUT!
Frankly, this has nothing to to with supporters. This is a media thing — the club has now insisted that channels like Sky, NBC, TNT Sports, etc. use the club’s full name, either “Tottenham Hotspur” or “Spurs” (if the former doesn’t fit) on graphics and other media instead of “Tottenham.” This apparently happened a few weeks ago, and the media has agreed to abide by the club’s request.
The club is certainly NOT asking fans to abide by this. That would require changing fan songs, chants, and heavy policing of language. The use of “Tottenham” is practically baked into fan culture. There’s really no way that the club could enforce something like that, even if they wanted to (and they probably don’t).
So why am I writing this up? Well, it’s a slow news day and also this is catching fire a bit on social media by angry Spurs fans that should probably know better, so why not. Basically, it’s a news story that, depending on how you discuss or write about it, will make most people say “Oh, hmm, yeah that makes sense” and the dumbest people online extremely angry for reasons. Don’t be one of the latter.