Club apologise and change ‘insensitive’ name of 12-team cup competition

A West Yorkshire based non league club have decided to apologise and change an ‘insensitive’ name of their 12-team cup competition.

Brighouse Town have launched a much anticipated proposed post-season football tournament with it given a new name, but only after they had to issue a big apology.

They put out an online poll last week, before the tournament was given the name ‘Covid Cup’, which narrowly beat the alternative option, the ‘Yorkshire Isolation Trophy’, by 186 votes to 180.

However, Brighouse have decided to make a U-turn, and that the references to the coronavirus pandemic were inappropriate in light of the current global situation, so have since declared that the competition will instead be known as the Yorkshire Trophy.

In a club statement, they said: “Due to the pandemic, we at Brighouse Town feel that the recent online poll to determine the tournament name was not thought through properly and that the implications of the suggested names were ill-considered and insensitive to the ongoing situation.

“Therefore, the tournament will be now known as The Yorkshire Trophy and all branding will be updated and redeveloped.

“We apologise for any offence this may have caused, it was not our intention as a community football club.”

PICK THE TOURNAMENT NAME – THE FINAL 2 | It’s COVID cup vs Yorkshire Isolation Cup. Pick your winner! #OneTownOneTeam@Steetonfc @pcfc1906 @golcarunited @EccleshillUtdFC @OssettUnited @Liversedge_FC @Emley_AFC @ThackleyAFC @TheGarforthTown @CampionAFC @SilsdenAFC

— Brighouse Town AFC (@brighousetownfc) March 11, 2021

Having overcome that sticky and awkward situation, something which could have been sorted before doing the cup name polls, the club have now announced the groups for the tournament.

The first lot contains Campion, Eccleshill United, Thackley, Steeton, Silsden and Garforth Town, while the other sees Brighouse, Liversedge, Emley, Golcar United, Ossett United and Penistone Church come against each other.

Brighouse Town chairman James Howard explained to the Telegraph & Argus recently, each team will play each other home and away, making it 10 matches apiece in the group stage.

The top two will play a two-legged semi-final, with the final taking place at Brighouse’s 1,000 capacity Yorkshire Payments Stadium.

Brighouse add: “Manager Vill Powell has put a tremendous amount of work into the organisation of the competition which will now have its final at The Yorkshire Payments Stadium after Bradford City had to reluctantly turn down the request for it to be played there on Saturday, May 29.”

The only other potential stumbling block is unless the government allow fans to attend the matches, due to take place between April 13 and May 29, it will not go ahead.

They are hopefully running to give West and South Yorkshire clubs some meaningful action.

Many other counties leagues from up and down the nations are requesting whether they can have a regional cup competition, again the go ahead all depends on if fans are allowed in stadiums, a further update from Boris Johnson to see if we’re sticking to his roadmap is expected.

Other names that fans were able to vote for via Twitter polls were Quarantine Cup, AstraZeneca Cup, Tier One Trophy, Anti COVID Cup, Unprecedented Cup and the Freedom Alliance Trophy.

Fans reacted as the club apologise and change the ‘insensitive’ name of their 12-team cup competition…

@scottbrad1: I prefer the covid cup

@lsm_21: Who has genuinely taken offence to that? 😂😂😂

@JordanGreig9: Anyone that complained about the name of a cup, you sad cunts

@KaineHall: I wonder who’s idea this was in the first place 👀😂👀😂 maybe the same person had the # 😂

@ForeverAYellow: Surprised that the club have decided to change the name, weren’t my preferred choice anyway as I went with Yorkshire Isolation Cup

@Fozzwafc (before the name change): Are you seriously calling it Covid Cup?

@pjacksonphilip: No love for Vaccine vase?

David Healey: Well done brighouse town for rethinking

Nigel Fox: keep it as the covid cup-much better name-nuts to people who cant take a joke–we just need the fixtures for it now and hopefully how many will be allowed in

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