Whitehawk have taken a swipe at Albion in the row over their proposed name change.

The National League South club want to be re-named Brighton City FC.

A previous bid for a name change was blocked by the Football Association amid objections from Albion, who do not want another team using the name Brighton.

Whitehawk, in a statement issued yesterday on the club website, said: “BHAFC has threatened us with legal action simply because on our website header, it says ‘Whitehawk FC, of Brighton and Hove City’, something which is clearly true as we are based in this city.

“We are not looking for competition with BHAFC and we cannot understand their viewpoint. Our intentions are to also represent our city by being named after it, hopefully in the near future also on a National level, yet this is being blocked by BHAFC.

“We respect they have existed since 1901, though most of their history they were based in Hove, rather than Brighton.”

Albion refused to comment on the criticism from their non-League neighbours.

Whitehawk chairman John Summers expects the FA to make a final decision on his club’s latest name change proposal in early May.