Hull City chairman Paul Duffen says there was a real possibility that Town's game with the Tigers might have switched venue had a change of kick-off time not been agreed.

The match moved at the last minute because rugby league side Hull FC have a Superleague play-off at the KC Stadium later that day. The decision, which was confirmed on Saturday, led to protests from Town supporters groups as many fans had already bought train tickets for the original kick-off time.

Duffen said: "The rugby league play-off mechanism is very confusing and when [Hull FC chief executive] James Rule brought it to our attention about 10 days ago that this could happen, I had to step outside my role as the chairman of a football club to facilitate both teams playing on the same day.

"We have agreed a compensation package with Ipswich for the travelling expenses for some of their fans and that is being shared by Hull FC and the Rugby Football League.

"There has been a lot of work the scenes on this. The only intransigent party that caused the problem is Sky TV, but they bankroll the whole of Super League and they would not move because of their TV schedule.

"If we couldn't come to an agreement with Ipswich there was a very real possibility Hull would have had to have played their game at Doncaster or Huddersfield.

"In my opinion that would have been a disaster for the city and everyone involved with the two clubs."

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