The Daily Mail, if you choose to believe anything they write, reports today that QPR owner Flavio Briatore is eager to change the club’s name from Queens Park Rangers to Queens Park City to emphasise their London connection. Briatore has obviously overlooked the fact that being based in London is a pretty big clue in itself. The move is not likely to go down well with supporters, and neither did these name changes:

1. Wimbledon to MK Dons
Owner Pete Winkelman has made a point of MK Dons carving their own heritage, which is just as well because Wimbledon fans don’t think he is entitled to any of theirs. Winkelman famously uprooted the Dons and moved them more than 50 miles north to picturesque Milton Keynes.

2. Leigh RMI to Leigh Genesis
This summer English football lost one of its quirkier teams when Leigh Railway Mechanics Institute’s board decided that a spot of rebranding was required. Leigh Genesis was born, complete with dodgy ice hockey-style club logo and the cheesy tag-line ‘A new beginning‘, much to the dismay of fans.

3. Gravesend & Northfleet to Ebbsfleet United
There were minor mutterings of discontent when this name change went through, but nostalgia was not enough to prevent it. In fairness, with all the other changes that have gone on at the club since, a change of name was a relative piece of cake.

4. FC Kuruvchi to Bunyodkor
Talk about alienating your fanbase. Kuruvchi means builder in Uzbeki, but the club’s owners ruled that the team now had a higher calling than merely entertaining builders and changed the name to Bunyodkor, meaning Creator!

5. Everton FC to Liverpool FC
The team we now know as Liverpool were formed in 1892 when the team we call Everton moved out of Anfield Stadium in a dispute over rent. The newly formed team called themselves Everton FC or Everton Athletic, but were forced to change their name when the Football League refused to recognise them as another Everton.