Probably the primary purpose for Washington’s choice to alter its identify to the Washington Soccer Group this previous summer time has lastly come to mild.

In keeping with a submit from The New York Occasions, group proprietor Dan Snyder deferred paying annual dividends to a few shareholders who collectively maintain 40 p.c of the franchise, resulting in a “bitter boardroom brawl” that prompted a authorized firestorm, a combat over the membership’s identify and mudslinging amongst former buddies.

On the heart of the authorized combat had been Snyder, in addition to minority house owners Fred Smith, Dwight Schar, and Robert Rothmann.

Days after the N.F.L. arbitration was set into movement, the authorized counsel for FedEx, the place Smith is chairman, despatched the group a letter saying the corporate would demand that its identify be faraway from the stadium, the place it has been displayed since 1999, if the group’s identify was not modified. FedEx pays about $eight million a yr for the naming rights to the group’s stadium in Landover, Md. Lower than two weeks later, Snyder introduced that the identify and emblem would get replaced.

In keeping with the report, the missed dividend cost may need had a direct affect on the group’s choice to alter its identify, which got here after a number of minority house owners publicly requested Snyder to promote the group.

The authorized battle over financials is nowhere near completed, and Snyder has made it recognized that he has no intention of promoting his share of the group, which accounts for roughly 60 p.c, which is held by both himself or his household.