The Spartans Football Club are a Scottish football club based in

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 ...

. They were formed in 1951 by ex-players of

Edinburgh University The University of Edinburgh ( sco, University o Edinburgh, gd, Oilthigh Dhùn Èideann; abbreviated as ''Edin.'' in Post-nominal letters, post-nominals) is a Public university, public research university based in Edinburgh, Scotland. Granted ...

and the original intention was to field a team of graduates of the

university A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. Universities typically offer both undergraduate and postgraduate programs. In the United States ...

. However, the club is now 'open' with players from many backgrounds. Spartans play 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 ...

and wear white shirts, red shorts and white socks. The senior team plays in , and are managed by Dougie Samuel. They joined the Lowland League in 2013, after playing in the East of Scotland Football League, where it had become one of its most successful clubs from the 1970s onwards. Spartans have been allowed to play in the qualifying rounds of the

Scottish Cup The Scottish Football Association Challenge Cup,SJFA East Region junior setup in 2009, but withdrew in 2013. Spartans also have an Under-20 squad in the Lowlands U20s Development League. As well as the Lowland League team, Spartans also have a Saturday amateur side, a Sunday amateur side and several women's teams, including The Spartans W.F.C. Spartans chairman Craig Graham was appointed

MBE Mbe may refer to: * Mbé, a town in the Republic of the Congo * Mbe Mountains Community Forest, in Nigeria * Mbe language, a language of Nigeria * Mbe' language, language of Cameroon * ''mbe'', ISO 639 code for the extinct Molala language Molal ...

in 2017 for his service to the community of North Edinburgh. In 2023, Spartans were promoted to

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 ...

after overcoming Albion Rovers in the play-offs.

History

Scottish Cup

The Spartans' most successful

Scottish Cup The Scottish Football Association Challenge Cup,2003–04, when they defeated Buckie Thistle 6–1 in front of a crowd of 450 in Edinburgh in the first round, before defeating

Alloa Athletic Alloa Athletic Football Club is a Scottish association football semi-professional club based in the town of Alloa, Clackmannanshire. Formed as Alloa in 1880, the football club shortly changed its name to Alloa Association, and then to Alloa Ath ...

5–3 in a replay (the first game had been drawn 3–3) in Edinburgh in the second round. They then defeated Arbroath (who had been in the SFL First Division only the year before) 4–1 at

Gayfield Park Gayfield Park, commonly known as Gayfield, is a football stadium in Arbroath, Angus, Scotland. It is the home ground of Scottish Professional Football League team Arbroath F.C. The club have played at Gayfield since 1880, although the pitch has ...

in the third round, before being beaten 4–0 at home by Scottish Premier League team Livingston in front of a full house of 3,000 fans at

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 ...

. Two seasons later in 2005–06, Spartans defeated

Berwick Rangers Berwick Rangers Football Club is a football team based in the town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, England, just south of the border with Scotland. Founded in 1881, they currently play in the , the fifth tier of Scottish football, despite hailing fr ...

Lossiemouth Lossiemouth ( gd, Inbhir Losaidh) is a town in Moray, Scotland. Originally the port belonging to Elgin, it became an important fishing town. Although there has been over 1,000 years of settlement in the area, the present day town was formed over ...

and Queen's Park in the first three rounds of the Scottish Cup. They drew 0–0 with First Division side St Mirren in the last sixteen in front of 3,326 fans at City Park, earning a replay at

Love Street "Love Street" is a song performed by the American rock band the Doors. Sequenced as the second album track on '' Waiting for the Sun'', its lyrics were written by lead singer Jim Morrison and as with other songs, it was dedicated to his girlfrien ...

, where they lost 3–0. In the

2008–09 Scottish Cup The 2008–09 Scottish Cup was the 124th season of Scotland's most prestigious football knockout competition. The winners were Rangers, who defeated Falkirk in the 2009 final on 30 May 2009. The competition was under new sponsorship. While the ...

, Spartans' cup run sent them to

Pollok Pollok ( gd, Pollag, lit=a pool, sco, Powk) is a large housing estate on the south-western side of the city of Glasgow, Scotland. The estate was built either side of World War II to house families from the overcrowded inner city. Housing 30,0 ...

, winning through a replay, they then beat Annan Athletic 2–1. In the next round they beat

Elgin City Elgin City Football Club (also known as City or The Black and Whites) is a professional senior football club based in Elgin, Moray. Elgin was founded in 1893 and originally played their football in the Highland Football League. The club was g ...

2–1, before being knocked out by Airdrie United in the fourth round. Spartans, along with four other clubs, submitted an application for entry into the Scottish Football League following Gretna relinquishing their league status on 3 June 2008. Spartans lost out to Annan Athletic. In November 2008, Spartans moved to a new purpose-built home at Ainslie Park, situated 500 yards from City Park in the

Crewe Toll Crewe Toll is an area in Edinburgh, the Scottish capital. The area takes its name from the Toll house which once stood at the junction of Ferry Road and Crewe Road North and South. The name Crewe, or a variation thereof (Creue, Crew or Crou), can ...

district of Edinburgh. The new facility includes a 504-seater stand and floodlights surrounding the main stadium pitch and an adjacent, full size artificial pitch with floodlights. Ainslie Park is now used daily by youth and adult Spartans teams, along with the general public. The club also won the league title this

season A season is a division of the year based on changes in weather, ecology, and the number of daylight hours in a given region. On Earth, seasons are the result of the axial parallelism of Earth's tilted orbit around the Sun. In temperate and ...

. In the 2009–10 season, Spartans won the quadruple, consisting of the East of Scotland Premier Division, the SFA South Challenge Cup, the King Cup and the League Cup. The 2009–10 league title gave Spartans back to back title wins for the first time since 2005. During the 2010–11 season, Spartans won their third league title in a row. The next

they lost the league title on goal difference to Stirling University, while in the 2012–13 season, they finished third in the league.

Lowland League

Spartans joined the newly formed

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 ...

for the 2013–14 season, winning the inaugural title. They finished as runners-up in 2015–16 and won the League Cup a year later, before becoming Lowland League champions for a second time in 2017–18. This allowed Spartans to take part in the Pyramid play-off, however they lost 5–2 on aggregate to Cove Rangers. The club progressed to the fifth round (last 16) of the 2014–15 Scottish Cup, defeating

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 ...

and

Morton Morton may refer to: People * Morton (surname) * Morton (given name) Fictional * Morton Koopa, Jr., a character and boss in ''Super Mario Bros. 3'' * A character in the ''Charlie and Lola'' franchise * A character in the 2008 film '' Horton H ...

en route. In the fifth round of the competition, Spartans forced a replay with

on 7 February 2015, thanks to an injury time equaliser from Ally MacKinnon to level the tie at 1–1, the game being played in front of 2504 supporters at Ainslie Park. In the 2022–23 season, Spartans won the Lowland League title for a third time. During that season's Pyramid play-offs they defeated Highland League champions

Brechin City Brechin City Football Club is a Scottish football club based in the townDespite the name of the football club, Brechin is not an official city. Brechin was historically known as a city because it has a cathedral. of Brechin in Angus. The club ...

4-3 on penalties before defeating Albion Rovers 2–1 on aggregate in the final to progress to

Stadium

Ainslie Park on Pilton Drive in north Edinburgh is the home ground of Spartans. The stadium has a capacity of 3,612 (504 seated). Ainslie Park is only part of the new project that Spartans have invested into their new ground, a wider development of the Spartans Community Football Academy. The new facility incorporates a fully enclosed stadium which meets SFA and

SPFL The Scottish Professional Football League (SPFL) is the national men's association football league in Scotland. The league was formed in June 2013 following a merger between the Scottish Premier League and the Scottish Football League. As we ...

criteria, with an artificial pitch, floodlights, seating for 504 spectators and an overall capacity of 3,612. Another full size, floodlit artificial pitch sits adjacent to the main playing area and the accommodation incorporates six changing rooms, a club room, committee room and a physio room. The Club ground holds a P.A system and a bar for spectators. In March 2017, Edinburgh City reached an agreement with Spartans to use Ainslie Park ground for three seasons while

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 ...

was being redeveloped.

Senior squad

Coaching staff

Honours

League

*Winners (3): 2013–14, 2017–18, 2022–23 *''Runners-up:'' 2015–16 East of Scotland Football League *Winners (9): 1971–72, 1983–84, 1996–97, 2001–02, 2003–04, 2004–05, 2008–09, 2009–10, 2010–11 *''Runners-up (7):'' 1977–78, 1984–85, 1992–93, 1997–98, 1998–99, 2006–07, 2011–12

Cup

SFA South Region Challenge Cup *Winners (3): 2008–09, 2009–10, 2010–11 Lowland League Cup *Winners: 2016–17 East of Scotland Qualifying Cup *Winners (10): 1983–84, 1989–90, 1995–96, 1997–98, 2001–02, 2005–06, 2006–07, 2010–11, 2016–17, 2018–19 East of Scotland City Cup *Winners (3): 2004–05, 2005–06, 2006–07 East of Scotland League Cup *Winners (5): 2003–04, 2004–05, 2009–10, 2010–11 King Cup *Winners (12): 1973–74, 1977–78, 1987–88, 2000–01, 2001–02, 2002–03, 2004–05, 2005–06, 2007–08, 2009–10, 2010–11, 2012–13

Notable players

The former

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a Anglo-Scottish border, border with England to the southeast ...

international

Eamonn Bannon Eamonn John Bannon (born 18 April 1958) is a Scottish former internationalist footballer who played in midfield. His most successful seasons were with Dundee United where he won two league cups and the 1983 League Championship. Numerous runs w ...

had a spell playing for Spartans in the 1990s.

Women's football

Spartans Football Club Women's and Girls is a women's football team that plays in the

Scottish Women's Premier League The Scottish Women's Premier League (SWPL) is the highest level of league competition in women's football in Scotland. Its two divisions are SWPL 1 and SWPL 2. The league was formed when the Premier Division of the Scottish Women's Football Leag ...

, the top division of women's football in Scotland. Spartans F.C. Women is part of Spartans F.C. in North

and play and train at the club's training facilities.

References

External links

* {{Football in Edinburgh Association football clubs established in 1951 Football clubs in Scotland Scottish Junior Football Association clubs Football clubs in Edinburgh 1951 establishments in Scotland East of Scotland Football League teams Lowland Football League teams University and college football clubs in Scotland