At a Special General Meeting held in the Executive Club at Edgar Street last night, (Monday 16 December), Hereford FC’s shareholders voted on the following resolution which was put forward by the Hereford United Supporters Trust (HUST):

Resolution for Change of Team Name

That, in accordance with the powers vested in the shareholders of Hereford FC, the Football Team name be changed from ‘Hereford FC’ to ‘Hereford United Football Club’, with immediate effect.

It is further resolved that this change shall only apply to the team’s public-facing name and branding, and it shall not alter the registered legal name of the company, which shall remain ‘Hereford FC Ltd’.

As stated in the club’s Articles of Association, for the resolution to pass, 75% of the total voting rights of shareholders had to vote in favour for the proposal to be agreed.

The result of the vote at the end of the meeting – in which every share held was worth one vote – saw 51% of shareholders vote in favour, meaning that the resolution did not pass.

At the meeting a representative of the Bring Back United group spoke about the case to change the name and then took questions from shareholders about information put forward ahead of the vote.

The meeting saw healthy debate on all sides with discussions taking place about a variety of topics including, as reported elsewhere, expected timescales if a name change was agreed, with the inclusion of the wording ‘with immediate effect’ in the HUST resolution raised as a query by some shareholders.

Shareholders also discussed ways to try to investigate the true financial impact of a name change and how a survey involving a wider proportion of the fanbase could potentially be carried out.