Airdrieonians F.C. (1878)

Airdrieonians Football Club, more commonly known as Airdrie, was a Scottish professional football team from the town of Airdrie, in the Monklands area of Lanarkshire.

The club became defunct at the end of the Scottish Football League 2001–02 season, despite the team finishing as runners-up in the SFL First Division to Partick Thistle and therefore only narrowly missing out on promotion to the Scottish Premier League.

During their 124-year existence the "Diamonds", as they were nicknamed, won the old Scottish Division Two three times, the Spring Cup once and the Scottish Challenge Cup on three occasions. The club also competed in four separate Scottish Cup finals; winning the competition in 1924.

Airdrieonians were the first club in the Scottish League to fold since 1967, when Third Lanark went bankrupt.

History

Formation and early years

The team was founded in Airdrie, North Lanarkshire in 1878 as Excelsior Football Club, changing its name to Airdrieonians in 1881.

Liquidation

In February 2000, KPMG were appointed as provisional liquidators of Airdrieonians.[11] This move came soon after Rangers chairman David Murray had applied for a court order to seize some of Airdrie's revenue in lieu of funds owed to another of his companies.[11] KPMG and the board hoped more private investment would be made in the club.[11] Most of the playing staff were made redundant at the end of the 1999–2000 season.[12] Steve Archibald put forth a bid for the club and during the 2000–01 season he brought in many foreign players, including David Fernández, Jesus Sanjuán, Antonio Calderón and Javier Sánchez Broto, that became popular with the fans[13] and won the Scottish Challenge Cup in 2000. KPMG terminated their management deal with Archibald in February 2001,[14] stating that Archibald had not kept up to date with payment of fees.[15] After difficulty fulfilling their fixtures, Airdrie narrowly avoided relegation to the Second Division.

Despite the obvious financial problems, Ian McCall managed to build a new Airdrie team and retained the Scottish Challenge Cup.[16] The club also performed well in the 2001–02 Scottish First Division and chased promotion to the Scottish Premier League. A run of only two victories in the last 14 games, however, meant that Partick Thistle won the First Division and the promotion place. The final match played by Airdrieonians was an away game against Ayr United at Somerset Park on 27 April. The match was abandoned by the referee after a crossbar was broken during a pitch invasion by Airdrie fans, who were protesting against the Ayr United owner Bill Barr. His Barr Construction company had built the Excelsior Stadium and became one of the major creditors of Airdrie.[17]

After Airdrieonians went out of business on 1 May 2002, local accountant Jim Ballantyne attempted to gain entry to the Scottish Football League (SFL) with a team named Airdrie United.[18] His bid for league status was rejected, however, in favour of the application by Gretna, who were then playing in the English Northern Premier League.[19] Ballantyne then opted to buy control of Clydebank, another SFL club experiencing extreme financial hardship.[20] With approval by the SFL, their name was changed to Airdrie United, the team relocated to Airdrie and the strip was altered to the famous diamond style of Airdrieonians.[20] A Hall of Fame was established by the new club to honour noted players of the previous entity (some of whom also played for the new club), with more entrants added each year.[21]

In June 2013, the SFA allowed Airdrie United to change their name to Airdrieonians.[22]

clubname	Airdrieonians
fullname	Airdrieonians Football Club
nickname	The Diamonds The Waysiders
founded	1878 as Excelsior F.C.
dissolved	2002
ground	Excelsior Stadium Airdrie, Lanarkshire
capacity	10,171
league	Scottish First Division
season	2001–02
position	Scottish First Division, 2nd
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pattern so1	_color_3_stripes_red
leftarm1	FFFFFF
body1	FF0000
rightarm1	FFFFFF
shorts1	FFFFFF
socks1	FFFFFF
pattern la2	_whiteborder
pattern b2	_whiteV
pattern ra2	_whiteborder
pattern so2	_color_3_stripes_white
leftarm2	FF0000
body2	FF0000
rightarm2	FF0000
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socks2	FF0000

Airdrieonians F.C. (1878)

History

Formation and early years

Post war era and beyond

Alex MacDonald era

Stadium problems

Liquidation

Stadium

The last Airdrieonians team

Honours and records

Honours

General club records

League record

Top league goalscorers

European record

External links

References