Clyde fans set to vote on relocation

CLYDE fans who are also owners of the club through their Community Interest Company scheme will meet ­tomorrow to vote on what the Third ­Division Club view as their most ­important decision in almost 80 years.

The meeting at 12:30pm at Broadwood in Cumbernauld ahead of their game against Montrose will look to get the go-ahead to start negotiations to relocate the club to East Kilbride. It will also look for a change of name to EK Clyde Football Club Community Interest Company or EK Clyde for short.

For the resolutions to pass, a turnout of 50 per cent of the club owners is required, which is a figure that has not been seen at a meeting since the club moved to CIC status in 2010. And, of the attendees present, a vote of 75 per cent is required to back the resolutions.

A Clyde spokesperson said: “We have had six weeks of discussion and debate and now the owners of Clyde have the opportunity to vote on what is one of the biggest decisions in the history of the club.

“This is the biggest decision since the one that was taken in the Thirties when our original home, Shawfield, was sold to the Greyhound Racing Association. This decision is certainly the biggest decision for the club’s new generation of owners.”

Clyde, who were evicted from Shawfield in 1986 by the Greyhound Racing Association, have been at Broadwood since February 1994 after a nomadic eight-year period when they resided at both Partick Thistle’s Firhill and Hamilton Accies’ old ground of Douglas Park.

East Kilbride, which lies just seven miles from Shawfield was looked at as a possible new home in the Eighties but discussions with the then council proved fruitless and the club opted to relocate 15 miles away to Cumbernauld.

That decision will now be reversed if the members of the Company Interest Company vote for the proposals.