Post by Admin™ on Sept 18, 2005 3:03:16 GMT -5
See this:
[ftp]http://www.theage.com.au/news/Soccer/Despair-as-East-Stirling-goes-south/2005/02/09/1107890272788.html[/ftp]
Despair as East Stirling goes south
By Dave James
Glasgow
February 10, 2005
They've won only six games in three years, are lucky if 100 people turn up to watch the team's weekly trials, while the players earn the princely sum of £20 ($49) each.
Welcome to East Stirling FC - Britain's worst professional soccer team.
In 21 matches this season, the club, based in F*****k, Scotland, has won only twice, clinched 12 points, and found the net 19 times while leaking 52 goals at the other end.
Last season, it finished bottom of the table, winning just twice in 33 games - a return of eight points out of a possible 108. The previous campaign was equally discouraging; bottom place again, winning two games and 13 points.
Formed in November 1881, when the Bainsford Bluebonnets cricket team decided to form the Bainsford Britannia football team, East Stirling was adopted as its name. The club's moment of glory came seven years later, in 1888, when it reached the quarter-finals of the Scottish Cup, only to lose to Celtic. Since then it has been largely downhill.
"We do our duty stoically," said Ian Ramsay, the head of the supporters' club. "The season was quite painful. I wouldn't wish it on anyone. We are not competing. This cannot continue. A hundred people - that's what we are down to for home games. After two seasons of pure crap, I'm amazed we've still got 100 fans," Ramsay told The Scotsman newspaper.
Advertisement
AdvertisementThings were not helped when the club decided to slash wages by £10 ($24) a week from an already humble £30 ($72) .
Despite its woeful form, East Stirling survives partly because there is no automatic relegation from the Scottish third division.
But there are signs the powers-that-be are becoming exhausted with the constant humiliations and are pondering introducing enforced re-election for any team that finishes bottom of the third division for two successive seasons.
Chairman Alan Mackin said the team's record was caused partly by running the club within its means. "We are the only team in Scotland that has faced the facts and tried to live within our means," he said. "We are the only team that's had the guts."
By Dave James
Glasgow
February 10, 2005
They've won only six games in three years, are lucky if 100 people turn up to watch the team's weekly trials, while the players earn the princely sum of £20 ($49) each.
Welcome to East Stirling FC - Britain's worst professional soccer team.
In 21 matches this season, the club, based in F*****k, Scotland, has won only twice, clinched 12 points, and found the net 19 times while leaking 52 goals at the other end.
Last season, it finished bottom of the table, winning just twice in 33 games - a return of eight points out of a possible 108. The previous campaign was equally discouraging; bottom place again, winning two games and 13 points.
Formed in November 1881, when the Bainsford Bluebonnets cricket team decided to form the Bainsford Britannia football team, East Stirling was adopted as its name. The club's moment of glory came seven years later, in 1888, when it reached the quarter-finals of the Scottish Cup, only to lose to Celtic. Since then it has been largely downhill.
"We do our duty stoically," said Ian Ramsay, the head of the supporters' club. "The season was quite painful. I wouldn't wish it on anyone. We are not competing. This cannot continue. A hundred people - that's what we are down to for home games. After two seasons of pure crap, I'm amazed we've still got 100 fans," Ramsay told The Scotsman newspaper.
Advertisement
AdvertisementThings were not helped when the club decided to slash wages by £10 ($24) a week from an already humble £30 ($72) .
Despite its woeful form, East Stirling survives partly because there is no automatic relegation from the Scottish third division.
But there are signs the powers-that-be are becoming exhausted with the constant humiliations and are pondering introducing enforced re-election for any team that finishes bottom of the third division for two successive seasons.
Chairman Alan Mackin said the team's record was caused partly by running the club within its means. "We are the only team in Scotland that has faced the facts and tried to live within our means," he said. "We are the only team that's had the guts."
[ftp]http://www.theage.com.au/news/Soccer/Despair-as-East-Stirling-goes-south/2005/02/09/1107890272788.html[/ftp]
