Whitehawk are considering their options after a second attempt to change the club’s name was rejected.

The Football Association this week told the club they could not become Brighton and Hove City for the 2014-15 season.

Twelve months ago a similar move to be known as Brighton City was turned down.

No reasons have yet been given by the FA Council, who made this week’s decision.

Brighton and Hove Albion objected to the move last year and it is understood they have raised concerns again about the similarity of names and possible effects of that.

Conference south club Whitehawk are keen on the name change to reflect the wider audience which their community projects are geared towards.

Joint-chairman John Summers expressed his disappointment at the FA’s decision but said this was not necessarily the end of the matter.

He said: “We will be meeting next week with our lawyers to discuss our next move.

“We are quite disappointed that the name change wasn’t supported by the Football Association.

“It is about making the club sustainable and developing it as a community football club and embracing the whole city.

“We don’t feel there is any competition to Brighton and Hove Albion, it would complement the football already in the city.

“We have a lot of development on the community side of the club proposed and a name change is integral to that.

“The idea from our perspective as local business people is to make the club sustainable and develop local football for local people and at a price they can afford and enjoy.”

Summers wants to wait for written reasons from the FA before decided what to do next week.

However, other clubs have changed names – such as Langney Sports becoming Eastbourne Borough – and he does not see why Whitehawk should not be allowed to do so.

He added: “We haven’t been given the information from the FA Council but we assume the names are too similar.

“We have had discussions with the CEO of Brighton and Hove Albion and we were more recently aware of some objections they had.

“Brighton and Hove is a city and it is a geographical location of where we have been situated since 1945.

“The similarity can relate to Manchester, Bristol and other places. Also the recent change of other clubs has gone through without any objection.”