Eagle-Eyed viewers of Sky Sports’ reporting about the 1-0 victory of Tottenham Hotspur against Manchester United Last Sunday, a change will have noticed.
When head coach Ange Postecoglou was interviewed before the kick-off and asked about the elevator to have players back from an injury, he was described as “Tottenham Hotspur head coach”. When the Tottenham XI was displayed on the left side of the screen, there was ‘traces’ at the top. And when the graphics showed the team in their positions, starting with a recess of Postecoglou, arms crossed, the word over his chest was “spurs”.
Nothing too surprising, you might think. Tottenham Hotspur is the name of the club. Spurs is their common nickname.
But if you saw the Sky Sports reports of Tottenham’s 3-2 defeat on Everton on January 19, it would look different. During the pre-match interview of Postecoglou he was described as “Tottenham Head Coach”. The team image just had the word “Tottenham” at the top. And the deprivation image of arms-crossed Postecoglou had again written “Tottenham” over his chest. When Sky Sports showed the current Premier League table, it was “Tottenham”. And the form table, in which they were again 18th of the 20, “Tottenham”.
Sky Sports’ Form Guide Graphic on January 19 (Sky Sports)
So what has changed? What has happened in recent weeks with the word ‘Tottenham’?
The answer is in an e -mail that was distributed on 10 February to Premier League broadcasters, which was seen by Athletics. With the title “Tottenham Hotspur Naming Update”, De Email makes clear how to refer to the club.
“Tottenham Hotspur has clarified the name of the club. They have asked that the club is mainly known as Tottenham Hotspur, where Spurs is the preferred short version. The club has asked that they are not called Tottenham. ‘
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This guidance has been transferred to Premier League broadcasters around the world. The changes that Sky Sports has made in their images are also made by other networks that show Tottenham competitions. The Premier League website is also in line. It is always “Tottenham Hotspur” or “Spurs” there, never “Tottenham”.
The explanation of the club for this is simple: Tottenham is the name of the area, but not the name of the club. It is a long -term club policy not to refer to itself as ‘Tottenham’. There is nothing new about this, the position of the club went back to 2011.
Sky Sports’ League Table Graphic on February 16 (Sky Sports)
What specifically changed is that the club unveiled a “remastered brand identity” in November last year, which was “rolled out over all the physical and digital contact points of the club”. This was supplied with a “brand playbook”, which explains in extensive detail what the new brand identity means. Towards the end of a section entitled “Tone of Voice” (“Defiant, authentic, collecting, energetic”), there is a section that makes it very clear how the club wants to be described.
“In a world full of Uniteds, Citys and Rovers there is only one hotspur, Tottenham Hotspur. Use ‘Tottenham Hotspur’, ‘Tottenham Hotspur Football Club’ or ‘THFC’ if you refer to the team or brand. Never refer to our club as ‘Tottenham’, ‘Tottenham Hotspur FC’ or ‘Th’. ‘
This month’s new guidance for broadcasters is a clear attempt to underline this, and to ensure that ‘traces’ instead of ‘Tottenham’ becomes the common steno when ‘Tottenham Hotspur’ does not fit.
On the one hand there is certainly an argument that ‘Tottenham’ is simply the name of the local area, and not the name of the club itself. There are numerous Premier League clubs for whom nobody would simply use the first geographical part of the name.
You would get a strange looks in Villa Park and said you looked forward to looking ‘Aston’. Very few would refer to the side that plays in Molineux as ‘Wolverhampton’, or in the city as ‘Nottingham’. And that is before we confront the thorny issue of places, including Manchester or Sheffield or Bristol, where two clubs share the same regional descriptor.
Tottenham -fans have long referred to their team as … Tottenham (Julian Finney/Getty images)
But on the other hand there are clubs where the first part of the name does the work. Everyone knows who Newcastle of Leeds of Leicester are. And for many Spurs fans, the name ‘Tottenham’ is perfectly usable to tell the world who supports. It has always been commonplace in the Spurs community in a way that ‘Aston’ has never been to Villa Park.
It does lead to you why ‘traces’ prefer ‘Tottenham’ as the short name of the club. ‘Spurs’ is certainly different ‘in a world full of Uniteds, Citys and Rovers’, although perhaps less on the global market, given San Antonio Spurs in the NBA. Yet it is memorable and spicy and it looks good on merchandise.
‘Hotspur’ is certainly unique and indispensable heritage. The name comes from then a new football club was founded in the area in 1882, and two brothers, Hamilton and Lindsay Casey, searched for their own brand identity. They called their club to Henry Percy, the Medieval Knight from Box-Office that Henry IV tried to overthrow and was killed in the Battle of Shrewsbury in 1403. His nickname was ‘Hotspur’, hence the name of the club, and hence the Club logo too. This is the history that is worth holding.
But Tottenham is also inseparable from Tottenham Hotspur. It was at Tottenham Marshes where the Casey brothers started playing 143 years ago, Tottenham, where the old White Hart Lane soil was opened in 1899, which was closed in 2017, and then Tottenham, where the futuristic new stadium was opened in 2019 . Unlike their short spell. At Wembley, while the new stadium was being built, Tottenham Hotspur has always played in this very specific corner of Northeast London. This is the house of the club and their community, for whom they do so much good job.
For many fans there is no distinction between the club and the area itself. They are synonymous. And they will remain ‘Tottenham’, regardless of what the guidance says.
(Top photo: Catherine Ivill – AMA/Getty images)