Michael Johnson, world-beating 200 and 400 metres runner-turned- professional-controversialist, offered the sporting world another challenging opinion this week when he asked: "Do we need the women's discus?"

The question was part of a characteristically hard-boiled statement from the American concerning the current health of his particular sport. He also contended that it would be "unrealistic" to expect athletics to be drug-free as it was "a microcosm of real life - in real life you will always have people who cheat."

But the point about the discus arose with Johnson's view that there needs to be closer attention within athletics "to what people actually want to watch". He added: "Do we need the women's discus?...We need to look at a new format, package it better to attract more fans."

Michael Johnson's strong opinions have opened up another debate within athletics 
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It is unfortunate timing for me that Johnson has only just come out with this line. Had he voiced it a month ago I would have had the opportunity to ask Olympic discus champion Sandra Perkovic face-to-face what she thought about it.

Then again, perhaps it isn't so unfortunate.

When I spoke to Perkovic at the Fairmont Hotel in Monte Carlo ahead of the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) World Gala, this powerful and vivacious young Croatian provided a vivid impression of what her event meant to her, and waxed lyrical about her continuing ambitions within it even though she is now world, European and Olympic champion.

On occasions in our interview I received little taps and nudges from her - Perkovic is one of those people who punctuate their words with actions. How that might have translated in physical terms had I put Johnson's question to her hardly bears thinking about. I suppose I might have found myself being hurled into the Mediterranean Sea.

Sandra Perkovic, the European, world and Olympic discus champion. Would you really want to tell her that the event was surplus to requirements? ©Getty Images

In broad terms, Johnson's comments point up the perennial problem within sport - or indeed life in general - of balancing innovation with tradition. Because there has to be a balance.

I recall my own reaction in January 2010 - as someone who has followed West Ham United since 1968 - when the recently installed vice-chair of the club, Karren Brady, said she favoured the idea of changing the name of the club to West Ham Olympic to mark their likely move into the London 2012 Stadium at Stratford.

Karren Brady, vice-chair of West Ham United, who - briefly - had the idea of changing the club's name to West Ham Olympic ©GGetty Images

That reaction was an old-school "No". West Ham United was the team Bobby Moore had played for, and Geoff Hurst, and Ronnie Boyce, and Peter Bradbrook, and Budgie Byrne, and Malcolm Allison...West Ham United was the team which had won the FA Cup in 1964, the European Cup-Winners' Cup in 1965 in a peerless Wembley final, and returned to that arena in 1975 and 1980 to pick up the FA Cup...

You get the picture. But then West Ham United was also the club known as Thames Ironworks FC for five years before it undertook a name change in 1900. Who knows - perhaps that alteration caused untold grief among the club's followers in East London.

West Ham UNITED celebrate victory in the European Cup Winners' Cup final at Wembley in 1965 ©Hulton Archive

There has been another point of sporting controversy this week over the name of a football club - Hull City, of the Premier League, have officially applied to the Football Association to change their name to Hull Tigers.

The name change is the idea of the club's 74-year-old owner Assem Allam, an Egyptian businessman who has lived in Hull since 1968 and who supplied £75 million ($123 million/€89 million) to help rescue the club from the parlous financial position in which it found itself in 2010 before promotion to the top tier of the English game last season.

Hull CITY line up for the most recent match against Swansea, during the one minute's silence for Nelson Mandela ©Getty Images

Allam's idea has caused consternation among the club's fans, who have set up a "City Till We Die" protest group. The owner's throwaway reaction to this group during an interview with the Hull Daily Mail, when he maintained that opponents of the change could "die as soon as they want", has further stoked the fires of outrage.

There are shades here of the proposals voiced - briefly - in 1983 by the late tycoon and proprietor of the Daily Mirror paper, Robert Maxwell, who wanted to merge the club he then owned, Oxford United, with close rivals Reading, in whom he had plans to hold a controlling interest, with the resulting franchise being named Thames Valley Royals. As far as the fans of both clubs were concerned, he might as well have proposed the name Anathema Disunited.

Hull City have had the nickname of "The Tigers" since 1905. But that, for most of the club's supporters, is a very different thing from actually being called Tigers. And these things matter.

"It may be just a name to Mr Allam, but to us it's the name of something we love, we've cherished and will be cherished long after the present owners," wrote Rick Skelton, who provides a Hull City Live Twitter feed. "The saddest part is that this has come at a time when the fans should be excited for top-class football, not angry at a ridiculous re-brand."

Allam added in his interview that the change was about making the club "special", and that it was "about identity." On that at least the supporters would not disagree with him.

According to Allam, the change from City to Tigers represents a classic marketing ploy. "The shorter the name, the more powerful the impact," he said. "That's not an opinion, it's textbook marketing. Twitter, Google, Apple, Fiat. Fiat means Fabbrica Italiana Automobili Torino, but they choose to keep the name short."

Hull City owner Assem Allam has applied to the FA to change the club's name to Hull Tigers 
©Getty Images

In his latest blog for Marketing Weekly, Mark Ritson dismisses the marketing theory put forward by Allam as being "nonsense". Even as a non-marketing guru, if one can be such a thing, I can see a bit of a problem with the Allam theory about shorter names.

Shoot me down in flames if I've got this wrong, but I believe the word "Tigers" comprises six letters, while the word "City" has only four. Nobody in the history of the world has ever referred to Hull City as Hull City Association Football Club, as Allam contends, any more than people refer to Manchester United Association Football Club or Chelsea Association Football Club.

Ritson concludes that this vexed situation illustrates one of the most important points about brand management, namely: "how you enact a strategy is often just as important as the strategy itself." Ritson adds that the one area Allam has "completely failed" to grasp is that of "brand engagement".

And what of Johnson? Do you need the women's discus, Michael Johnson? Evidently not. But does that mean the sport should forego it?

Here is what Perkovic had to say about her event. "After I won the gold in Moscow I felt like someone had kicked my ass. I had a back operation in 2009 and on the day of the Moscow qualification I couldn't move properly. It was a big problem. Some people said I needed to stop, but I said 'No. I must win this gold', so I got medical help and I was able to qualify OK. But after the final I could hardly walk.

"Next was the meeting at my home in Zagreb, and I had my only defeat of the season, which was a big shame. But when I got to Brussels I did a first round of 67.04 and so I stayed unbeaten in the Diamond League. I don't know how I did it.

"Now I think that 2014 will be the season of my life. I am preparing so hard. I have not missed a single minute of training, I am so focused. If you want to get 70m you cannot afford to miss even a tiny thing. You must do everything, one, two, three, and then you will get it. If you miss anything out, it will be 69.50. I pray to God for next season. I want to do something amazing, like the world don't see for the past 30 years."

Hear that, Michael? I dare you to try discussing the discus with Sandra...

Mike Rowbottom, one of Britain's most talented sportswriters, covered the London 2012 Olympics and Paralympics as chief feature writer for insidethegames, having covered the previous five summer Games, and four winter Games, for The Independent. He has worked for the Daily Mail, The Times, The Observer, The Sunday Correspondent and The Guardian. His latest book Foul Play – the Dark Arts of Cheating in Sport (Bloomsbury £12.99) is available at the insidethegames.biz shop. To follow him on Twitter click here.