Football Club of Edinburgh, formerly known as Edinburgh City F.C., is a semi-professional senior Scottish football club which plays in

Scottish League One The Scottish League One, known as cinch League One for sponsorship reasons, is the third tier of the Scottish Professional Football League, the league competition for men's professional football clubs in Scotland. The Scottish League One was ...

, the third tier of the Scottish Professional Football League. The club play at

Meadowbank Stadium Meadowbank Stadium (officially the Meadowbank Sports Centre) is a multi-purpose sports facility located in the Meadowbank area of Edinburgh, Scotland. Built on the site of the earlier New Meadowbank and Old Meadowbank sports venues, it was or ...

, returning to the rebuilt arena in 2022 after five years at

Ainslie Park Ainslie Park is a football stadium located in Edinburgh, Scotland, which is the home ground of Lowland Football League club Spartans and the club's women's team in the Scottish Women's Premier League (SWPL). In addition, Scottish Professional ...

. A club known as Edinburgh City was first formed in 1928. It participated in the Scottish Football League in the 1930s and 1940s, but went out of business in the 1950s. The present club adopted the Edinburgh City name in 1986. It applied to join the Scottish Football League in 2002 and 2008, but failed to win election. Edinburgh City became members of the new Lowland League in 2013. The club won the Lowland League championship in 2015 and 2016 and won promotion to the Scottish Professional Football League in 2016. In 2022, Edinburgh City were promoted to reach

for the first time in club’s history after winning 3–2 in the play-off final against Annan Athletic. Following this promotion, on 16 June 2022 the club rebranded, changing its name from Edinburgh City Football Club to Football Club of Edinburgh and unveiling a new badge.

History

The original Edinburgh City was founded in 1928. The club adopted amateur status, with the aim of becoming the

Edinburgh Edinburgh ( ; gd, Dùn Èideann ) is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 council areas. Historically part of the county of Midlothian (interchangeably Edinburghshire before 1921), it is located in Lothian on the southern shore of t ...

equivalent of Queen's Park. Edinburgh City joined the Scottish Football League in 1931. The club played in the Lothian Amateur League during the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposi ...

and were only admitted to the

C Division The 11th Division ( es, 11ª División)Carlos Engel, ''Historia de las Brigadas Mixtas del E. P. de la República'', 1999 was a division of the Spanish Republican Army in the Spanish Civil War. It was formed in January 1937 in Madrid beginning w ...

in 1946. After three more years of struggle, the club left the Scottish Football League in 1949. It switched to junior status and played in the Edinburgh & District Junior League. The club ceased activity completely in 1955, when the local council refused to renew its lease on its home ground,

City Park An urban park or metropolitan park, also known as a municipal park (North America) or a public park, public open space, or municipal gardens ( UK), is a park in cities and other incorporated places that offer recreation and green space to resi ...

. A club called Postal United was founded in 1966 and joined the East of Scotland League. Their best league finish was third in 1985–86, having won the Qualifying Cup in 1982–83 and King Cup in 1984–85. The Edinburgh City Football Club Ltd., which had continued trading as a social club since the football club stopped playing, gave their approval in 1986 for Postal United to use the Edinburgh City F.C. name. The club has participated in the

Scottish Cup The Scottish Football Association Challenge Cup,Scottish Football Association. In the

1997–98 Scottish Cup The 1997–98 Scottish Cup was the 113th staging of Scotland's most prestigious football knockout competition. The Cup was won by Heart of Midlothian who defeated Rangers in the final. First round Replay Second round Replays Third roun ...

they defeated SFL club,

East Stirlingshire East Stirlingshire Football Club is a Scotland, Scottish association football club based in the town of Falkirk. The club was founded in 1881 and competes in the , in the fifth tier of the Scottish football league system. The club's origins ca ...

, before losing 7–2 to

Dunfermline Athletic Dunfermline Athletic Football Club is a Scottish football club based in the city of Dunfermline, Fife. Founded in 1885, the club currently play in Scottish League One after being relegated from the 2021–22 Scottish Championship. Dunfermline ...

, then of the Premier Division. The club applied to join the Scottish Football League in 2002, after Airdrieonians had gone bankrupt, but Gretna won the vote instead. Edinburgh City applied again following Gretna's liquidation in 2008, but this time lost out to Annan Athletic. Edinburgh City won the East of Scotland Football League Premier Division title for the first time in the 2005–06 season and became members of the new Lowland League in 2013. The club won the Lowland League title in 2014–15 and 2015–16. They then gained promotion to the Scottish Professional Football League by defeating

in a play-off with a penalty four minutes from time by Dougie Gair. The victory also meant that it was the first time that a non-league club had been promoted to the professional league. The club finished in seventh place during their first

Scottish League Two The Scottish League Two, known as cinch League Two for sponsorship reasons, is the fourth tier of the Scottish Professional Football League, the league competition for men's professional football clubs in Scotland. The Scottish League Two was e ...

season of 2016–17. They avoided the

relegation play-offs In sports leagues, promotion and relegation is a process where teams are transferred between multiple divisions based on their performance for the completed season. Leagues that use promotion and relegation systems are often called open leagues. ...

in 2018, finishing eight points ahead of bottom placed

Cowdenbeath Cowdenbeath (; sco, Coudenbeith) is a town and burgh in west Fife, Scotland. It is north-east of Dunfermline and north of the capital, Edinburgh. The town grew up around the extensive coalfields of the area and became a police burgh in 189 ...

, and fared better in 2018–19, finishing third and qualifying for the League One promotion play-offs; however, they were knocked out by

Clyde Clyde may refer to: People * Clyde (given name) * Clyde (surname) Places For townships see also Clyde Township Australia * Clyde, New South Wales * Clyde, Victoria * Clyde River, New South Wales Canada * Clyde, Alberta * Clyde, Ontario, a tow ...

in the play-off semi-finals, losing 4–0 over two legs. Edinburgh City sat second in the table after 27 games when the truncated 2019–20 season was brought to an early finish in April 2020. The club began preparations for

2020–21 The dash is a punctuation mark consisting of a long horizontal line. It is similar in appearance to the hyphen but is longer and sometimes higher from the baseline. The most common versions are the endash , generally longer than the hyphen b ...

by announcing the signing of a pre-contract with former striker Ouzy See in June 2020. This was followed up by the signing of defender Lee Hamilton from Stranraer and goalkeeper Kelby Mason in July. The club also confirmed that sporting director Jim Jefferies had departed to return to Hearts. Despite finishing 4th in the 2021–22 season, Edinburgh City navigated through the League One play-offs and earned promotion to the

, the 3rd tier in Scottish football, for the first time in their history. In June 2022 the club changed their name to FC Edinburgh, as they no longer felt the 1986 permission from the Edinburgh City social club to use the name was sufficient, and wished to own their own name outright. When the social club refused to surrender the name, the football club changed to "Football Club of Edinburgh". The club clarified in October 2022 that it should be known as Edinburgh, rather than its full name of FC Edinburgh.

Colours

The club colours are white and black. Postal United F.C. played in all-red, but switched to the traditional colours when it adopted the Edinburgh City identity in 1986.

Stadium

Ainslie Park, Edinburgh (geograph 5087309)

The original club played its home matches at

Powderhall Stadium Powderhall Stadium formerly the Powderhall Grounds was a greyhound racing track in Edinburgh, Scotland. It was located on Beaverhall Road, in the Powderhall ( Broughton) area of northern Edinburgh, beside the Water of Leith. The track closed i ...

and

during its time in the Scottish Football League. The present club initially played their home fixtures at the Saughton Enclosure, which is now home to Lothian Thistle Hutchison Vale, before switching to Paties Road, where Edinburgh United currently play. Edinburgh City then moved to City Park and then Fernieside. Edinburgh City moved to

, which had been vacated by the move of

Meadowbank Thistle Livingston Football Club is a Scottish professional football club based in Livingston, West Lothian. Livingston currently play in the Scottish Premiership and were founded in 1943 as Ferranti Thistle, a works team. The club was admitted to the ...

to Livingston, in 1996, and gained some additional supporters via those Meadowbank fans who opted to continue watching a local side rather than the relocated team.Livingston return to Meadowbank '“ where it all began
The Scotsman, 19 July 2016 In February 2013, the City of Edinburgh Council started a new consultation process about the future of Meadowbank Stadium. Three options for redeveloping Meadowbank were put forward for consideration by Edinburgh Council in December 2013. A planned design was made public in November 2016 and work began after the 2016–17 season ended. Edinburgh City reached an agreement with

Spartans Sparta ( Doric Greek: Σπάρτα, ''Spártā''; Attic Greek: Σπάρτη, ''Spártē'') was a prominent city-state in Laconia, in ancient Greece. In antiquity, the city-state was known as Lacedaemon (, ), while the name Sparta referr ...

to use their Ainslie Park ground for three seasons while Meadowbank is redeveloped. The club announced in March 2021 that they would return to Meadowbank for the 2021–22 season, with the ground now having a 4G artificial playing surface and a 500-seat stand. Due to construction delays because of the Covid-19 pandemic, the club remained at Ainslie Park for the 2021–22 season.

First-team squad

On loan

Coaching staff

Managers

Honours

SPFL League 2 * ''Runners-up (2):'' 2019–20, 2020–21

Lowland Football League The Scottish Lowland Football League (SLFL, commonly known as the Lowland League) is a senior football league based in central and southern Scotland. The league sits at level 5 on the Scottish football league system, acting as a feeder to the ...

*Winners (2): 2014–15, 2015–16 East of Scotland Football League *Winners: 2005–06 *''Runners-up:'' 2003–04 East of Scotland Football League First Division *Winners: 1995–96 *''Runners-up:'' 1989–90 SFA South Region Challenge Cup *''Runners-up (3):'' 2007–08, 2010–11, 2015–16 East of Scotland League Cup *Winners (3): 1992–93, 2001–02, 2012–13 *''Runners-up (4):'' 2000–01, 2003–04, 2004–05, 2011–12 King Cup *Winners (2): 1998–99, 1999–00 *''Runners-up:'' 2004–05

References

; Sources *

External links

Official website
{{Football in Edinburgh Football clubs in Edinburgh Football clubs in Scotland Association football clubs established in 1928 1928 establishments in Scotland East of Scotland Football League teams Lowland Football League teams Scottish Professional Football League teams