Clyde FC: Financial difficulties could spell end of historic club

The recent news headlines of Clyde FC being in financial trouble, in regards to North Lanarkshire Council wanting to evict them from Broadwood for unpaid rent, as well as other financial issues have not gone away. A Club statement on their official website has stated that “much of the budget deficit for the season remains” and with relegation to the Second Division, it will only increase the financial pressure on the club.

While the talks with the stadium owners giving the club time to finish the league were successful, it now seems that such talks were only to solve the short term issues of fulfilling their committments to the league and now with relegation, the club is set to readjust its finances, in a bid to survive.

The club has been in discussion with players and other stakeholders to avert an extension of the financial crisis. The positive outcome of recent talks with the stadium landlord gave the club time to finish the season in an orderly manner at a time when limited prospects of staying in the First Division remained, now that the season has ended and with relegation being confirmed, the club must now readjust its cost base to survive in football itself, let alone the Second Division.

The players were all asked to attend a meeting at the stadium where they were brought up to date with the current position, the manager was similarly briefed by directors on Monday. During these discussions, the club revealed that all contracts would require to be reviewed or ended to allow the club to restructure for next season at a fraction of current levels, including that of manager’s John Brown.

The statement read, “Efforts continue in the business community and elsewhere to find additional backing for next season, but following a disappointing season on the park and the effects of the economic downturn off the park the board has had to acknowledge that the prospects of finding adequate additional funding to maintain the current squad are very low, in the absence of any significant support then the cost base of the club has to be reduced. The next few weeks will be an uncertain time for Clyde and all involved around the club would like to thank everyone that has contributed to the Back the Bully Wee campaign to date. We would ask that everyone keeps the momentum going and do what you can to help us pull through.”

However despite certain cost cutting measures that will be introduced by the club, it is still uncertain if the club can actually survive the drop to the third tier of Scottish Football. Many reasons have been banded about in regards to how the club got into this predicament, but one major issue was the move away from Shawfield stadium out to a field in Cumbernauld, taking the club away from its own heartland, its community.