Scotland's Franchise Club: The Merger Of Clydebank And Airdrie

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4 ай бұрын

Airdrieonians and Clydebank were 2 historic clubs facing financial difficulties but what followed was one of the most controversial moments in Scottish football. This video looks at the history of the 2 sides and the ensuing chaos that would strike.
All images belong to copyright holders
A lot of the Airdrie images belong to Robert Dalziell here’s where you can find more of his stuff www.robertdalzell.co.uk

Пікірлер: 54

@rabsrealm 4 ай бұрын

Airdrie's financial problems were not self inflicted. They were in dispute with Barr construction over the state of the new stadium. The main stand for instance had the roof built shorter than the plans meaning the bottom rows of the main stand were not covered by the roof, the turnstyle system never worked correctly causing the police to raise concerns about attendance numbers. There were many other snagging issues with the stadium that had never been addressed by the construction company. This was well documented at the time. I personally saw documents that showed a certain party linked to Barr construction and the then Rangers chairman colluding to put the club into administration and taking the stadium from the club. The document (a fax if I remember) showed two parties agreeing to pressing the club to liquidation and then use the stadium as a means of generating additional revenue stream for their respective companies. The demise of Airdrieonians was a scandal and should have been investigated by the police. The same company that put Airdrie into administration done the very same thing to Bournemouth FC and eventually took control of both stadiums under ghost companies or "Stadco's". The administrators worked within the confines of the law but they went very close to the wire to facilitate a hostile and highly unethical stripping of a community club for the benefit of two parties. Both of those parties eventually came a cropper themselves embroiled in their own scandals and are no longer involved in Scottish football. The whole thing was disgusting to watch unfold. I knew Joey Rowan personally. He was a brilliant and kind man who held the club close to his heart. He refused to be brow beaten by corporate thugs which unfortunately, led to his demise. It put him in an early grave!

@CallumBlyth 4 ай бұрын

Wow that’s not something I knew or saw mentioned. Thank you for your input.

@RighAlban Ай бұрын

KPMG was the company, they refused valid offers for the club because of their pre arranged plans you stated, Im sure Steve Archibald was leading a group to take over, we seen a whole load of Spanish players arrive, Nacho Novo being one, thing were looking up, but as you stated the company was all about asset stripping, they were not interested in a deal to save the club.

@stuartcraig6722 23 күн бұрын

David Smith, who was Vice Chairman of the club at the time, told a fans group (I was at that meeting) that the balance outstanding on the stadium build was about 50K once snagging and incomplete work was taken into account. This was a couple of weeks before the club entered administration, at which point the builders submitted a claim for the full amount of the outstanding invoice (roughly 500K) rather than the amount that Smith said the club had negotiated prior to that point. At the time the club went under as well as the outstanding stadium bill, the debt involved about 750K owed in fees to the administrators and about 1.8M tax owed to HMRC as well as other smaller amounts (200K owed to BoS was the next largest debt). The tax was owed on the proceeds on the sale of Broomfield which Airdrie should have been able to write off since that money was then used to pay for the construction of New Broomfield. Unfortunately the club failed to fulfil all of the conditions of the stadium planning consent (improvements to local roads) and as a result couldn’t receive the title deeds to the new stadium, which was the documentation required to waive the tax. It’s probably fair to say that the situation was a combination of incompetence by some of club office bearers, and bad faith actions by other parties. Ultimately it was the fans of Airdrie and Clydebank who suffered and local small businesses who were never paid. It was also rumoured at the time of the election attempt that Ballantyne was approached by other parties and encouraged to buy Clydebank with assurances that a request to move the club to Airdrie would be approved by a majority of the other league clubs. Obviously no-one has ever provided proof of that claim but it feeds beautifully into the reputation of the steak pie, blazer and cigar brigade of club chairmen who run the league.

@skadforlife3817 4 ай бұрын

Had been to many games played at Broomfield park and kilbowie Park , they were both decent grounds, especially Broomfield Park , where I saw Airdrie's goalkeeper John Martin scoring a goal from his own box. There was always a good atmosphere at Broomfield especially with the presence of the "Section B" in the late 70's early 80's

@tonyguyan9559 4 ай бұрын

I was under the impression that Airdrie went bust and a business owner formed a new club called Airdrie United and were denied admission to the Scottish Football Club and that went to Gretna so the new club folded! So he bought Clydebank and changed their name to Airdrie United, changed the kit and moved the club to Airdrie’s ground. Also Clydebank merged with East Stirlingshire for one season only back in 60’s.

@charliestelios3855 4 ай бұрын

Yeah that's how this is portrayed in the video

@tonyguyan9559 4 ай бұрын

@@charliestelios3855 no he’s saying Airdrie & Clydebank merged which wasn’t the case. The only two clubs in Scotland that merged recently were Inverness Caley & Inverness Thistle!

@andrewp7455 4 ай бұрын

Airdrie have never had a spell in League Two from what i remember. Was a season ticket holder for Airdrie when they went under. The fact clubs were at the time forced to have a 10,000 all-seater stadium to get into the premier league was a massive burden on lower league clubs. And then the SPL changed it to a more sensible figure of 6000 in 2004. If the figure was 6000 to begin with the original Airdrie might still be around.

@CallumBlyth 4 ай бұрын

Oh god you’re right, I must of got confused between second division and league 2. Sorry should have checked that.

@jimbrown9542 4 ай бұрын

Airdrie United fought for a few years to change their name to Airdrieonians but the the SFA refused with the reason that they could not allow clubs to go bust and just walk away from their debts. However, after a much larger Scottish club did just that, representatives for AUFC were going to use this as the reason to get the club name changed back to Airdrieonians. Apperently just before the meeting to discuss this the SFA suddenly dropped their opposition and the name change was waved through.

@CallumBlyth 4 ай бұрын

Hmmm I wonder what club that might have been

@user-ez1uw6zs2b 4 ай бұрын

Although Airdrie had to buy it back from the SFA for like 500k or something. Rangers paid companies house for a team and got theirs. Shambles

@kris662 4 ай бұрын

So your saying the sfa are biased towards a certain club? Who knew 😅🤣

@kris662 4 ай бұрын

So your saying the sfa are biased towards a certain club? Who knew 😅🤣

@kris662 4 ай бұрын

So your saying the sfa are biased towards a certain club? Who knew 😅🤣

@CallumBlyth 4 ай бұрын

I swear I didn’t make this because Raith haven’t beaten Airdrie this season

@DuncanMcintyre-jk3qb 4 ай бұрын

As a par why could they no have just taken over the faith

@CallumBlyth 4 ай бұрын

Because we’re simply massive

@kris662 4 ай бұрын

Another great video mate. Can you make videos about mother well during the early 00s and how the fans saved the club and then they used youth and ended up bringing through a bunch of stars like McFadden. I'm not a motherwell fan just how the club was saved and became the community club it is now is a good story

@friendly_inlaw 4 ай бұрын

Another nice vid, man. Your mention of Broadwood reminded me of its existence and I was wondering who on earth are playing there, since Clyde are now sharing with Hamilton Accies. Turns out it's Glasgow City and Cumbernauld Colts. That's an all-seater (Premiership-grade, if I'm not mistaken - old standards not the more relaxed newer ones) stadium, for the womens premiership (fair enough) and a Lowland League (!!) side. Also I loved the combined Clydebank/Yoker mural at the entrance of Holm Park

@CallumBlyth 4 ай бұрын

Yeah it’s wild seeing a large stadium used for 5th their football

@gordon1545 4 ай бұрын

Glasgow City don't play at Broadwood, they play at Petershill. Rangers Women play at Broadwood.

@friendly_inlaw 4 ай бұрын

@@gordon1545 My bad - I worked through the wikipedia article and when I came to comment must have mixed up which team played there currently (Rangers WFC) and which team played their 20/21 season there (Glasgow City WFC).

@jackshuttleworth4274 4 ай бұрын

We need a video on how Falkirk are one of the Unluckiest teams in Scotland. Rejected Promotion due to Brockville, play-off heartbreak, and languishing in League one.

@charliestelios3855 4 ай бұрын

Few minor facts incorrect in this regarding Airdrie and some of the images don't correspond with the audio but overall put together well

@unusedsub3003 4 ай бұрын

Am no fae Yolker!!

@lewissmith350 4 ай бұрын

Cool video.

@afw8727 4 ай бұрын

Wimbledon were possibly moving to Dublin would have been interesting having a Scottish and English clubs based in Dublin.

@CallumBlyth 4 ай бұрын

What on earth were people smoking where Dublin seemed like the go to place to move a football club

@user-fd1pr5co2c 4 ай бұрын

Off course the SFA approved the name change, that's what's wrong with our game, Airdrieonians of today are not the Airdrie of yesterday, just like the new Rangers aren't the old ones.

@stuartcraig6722 23 күн бұрын

That’s a fairly glib assertion. Airdrie are the same club in lots of ways that matter. Same ground, same supporters, same strip and traditions. Ok, the club’s official league honours are those of Clydebank but if you were to ask current fans who were around back then whether they consider pre-2002 Airdrie to be a different club or a continuation of that club then 99% would say the latter and, as far as opinions which count go, their’s is the only one that really matters.

@bobdalzell50 4 ай бұрын

Interesting video. You have used a large number of my copyrighted pictures without asking or indicating the source. Very disappointing.

@CallumBlyth 4 ай бұрын

I’ve sent you a message

@user-cm5hu5yp4z 4 ай бұрын

Clydebank in the lowland next season. We’re on our way.

@CallumBlyth 4 ай бұрын

It’ll be tough with Broxburn in the playoffs but it would be good to see them make their way up again

@AirdrieoniansFC 2 ай бұрын

Thanks for the vid Callum. I enjoyed it in the same way you enjoy the end result of a root canal...if that makes sense! Good luck to Clydebank. The shenanigans that put them out of the league never sat easy with me. I always considered Airdrie United to me no more than an Airdrieonians tribute act. I think it was the name. I always hated it. That and the badge. But fair do's to Jim Ballantyne for keeping us in the fight, even though it was at another team's expense, which I wouldn't wish on anyone. When the Lord Lyon stole our right to use the original crest, citing ridiculous rules about heraldic symbols, it truly did feel like the end of my club. Les, Jim, Ian and many others fought tooth and nail to stop the demise of Airdrieonians, even siding with Steve Archibald's plans to have them as a "selling club": bringing talent from abroad and hoping to attract buyers from the British leagues to fund the running of the club. I often wonder where that plan would have taken us.

@user-cm5hu5yp4z 2 ай бұрын

Egg on my face here

@Nuglung77 4 ай бұрын

Missing all the sfa corruption and the Gretna saga ... sfa to blame for all this

@CallumBlyth 4 ай бұрын

My last video was on Gretna

@duneideann9241 4 ай бұрын

No mention of rangers dirty hands involved in all of this

@alanfox691 4 ай бұрын

I would suggest Clyde & Livingston are more franchise clubs. Both have lead a nomadic existence.

@user-vj6op6zi2n 4 ай бұрын

Livingston makes sense as Meadowbank Thistle struggled to get fans in Edinburgh. Hard to believe there are now 4 league clubs in the city.

@MrMmnngghh 4 ай бұрын

and yet Livi's attendances are still appalling. Edinburgh City's have always been small, and they seem to be doing everything they can to put people off going. At least The Spartans seem to have a plan, and I 'm not a supporter of theirs - I'd back Edinburgh City more than I do if they can someday get their act together.@@user-vj6op6zi2n

@RevStickleback 4 ай бұрын

Livingston are definitely a franchise, but Clyde is more awkward because they lost their ground through no fault of their own, and didn't want to move away. The fact that they still exist after nearly 40 years of nomadic existence is pretty remarkable.

@starshot131 23 күн бұрын

@@RevStickleback existence would probably be less nomadic if they cleaned up their act... not hiring a rapist would certainly have meant one less move