How Leicester City Decided Their Name At Half Time

Leicester City sent shockwaves around the sporting world in 2016, completing a feat so unlikely, that William Hill offered odds of 5000-1 for it to happen.

Few Premier League achievements will come close to what the club achieved that season – even fewer will compete with Andrea Bocelli donning a Foxes’ shirt and stunning the stadium into silence with his rendition of Nessun Dorma as a teary-eyed Claudio Ranieri stood alongside.

Plenty of individual accolades came with the title too. Jamie Vardy shattered Ruud van Nistelrooy’s record by scoring 13 goals in 11 consecutive games while N’golo Kanté became the most loveable man in the game.

Reminisce on first-hand tales from that incredible season in the latest episode of Football Uncovered.

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A story that may not be so familiar to neutrals came back in 2003, when fans were given the final say in their club’s name.

New chairman, Jon Holmes, had launched a campaign for the club to revert back to its original title, Leicester Fosse. As the club came out of administration, Holmes wanted to signal a new era and also believed the rebrand could hold financial advantages.

Leicester began life with the Fosse name in 1884, when the team played on a field near Fosse Road. After being elected to the football league in 1894 they adopted the more familiar title of Leicester City.

The final decision on any potential name change was handed back to the fans, in a bizarre but highly-efficient method.

A piece of history was made that day, as fans watched their side beat Wimbledon 4-0.

Credit: Mike Finn-Kelcey/Getty Images

Those in the stadium were handed cards, one side with the letter C, the other marked F. At halftime they were invited to cast their vote on what Leicester would be known as moving forward.

The Cs overwhelmingly had it and an announcement at the end of the game declared “City would remain City forever.”

Not bad for a Saturday afternoon at the football, eh?

Featured image credit: Getty Images