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How many SFL clubs both current and historical have been formed through mergers?

The stadium quirks thread just brought Dundee to my attention and the recent BBC documentary mentioned how close Hearts/Hibs & Dundee/Dundee United were to happening.

I can think of Inverness CT, Aberdeen, Queen of the South, Ayr United and now Dundee.

 

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In the early years many clubs merged, or more likely absorbed another. They also took over junior sides as reserve XIs.

Dumbarton with Dumbarton Athletic in 1889

Montrose and Montrose United in 1880

Motherwell was a merger of Alpha and Glencairn in 1886

Cowdenbeath was a merger of Cowdenbeath Rangers and Raith Rovers in 1882

Albion Rovers was a merger of Albion and Rovers in 1882

Ayr United were the result of a series of mergers... Ayr Thistle and Ayr Accie,s who were themselves formed by the merger of Ayr Academy and Eglinton in 1876, merged as Ayr FC in 1879. They merged with Parkhouse in 1910 to form United.

Stranraer were the merger of Academy Coursers, Lodge TC, Sheuchan Swifts and Waverley in 1870

Edinburgh City absorbed Postal United when the football section of the social club restarted in 1986

Past members, Peebles Rovers, probably absorbed Bonnington Thistle in 1895

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Ross County was a merger of Dingwall Thistle and Dingwall Victoria United in 1929 to create a club for Ross-Shire.  Very franchise-y IMO.

The original Livingston with the set up of Gretna.

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I still think that whoever proposed that the merged club call themselves Albion Rovers was pulling everyone's leg and no-one got it. Instead of plumping for Coatbridge, or Coatbridge United (or were they still in Whifflet back then), they went for "Albion Rovers" - which is like calling yourselves United Athletic, or City Town, or Thistle Star? Always seemed unusual.

I appreciate effectively the same thing happened with Caledonian Thistle but they added "Inverness" back on fairly quickly and at least Caledonian fits better, perhaps even carrying some geographic connotations.


Unusual thing about Ross County is that of course there was no such County as Rossshire by 1929. It had been merged with Cromartyshire to become Ross & Cromarty in 1890s, IIRC.

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1 hour ago, HibeeJibee said:

I still think that whoever proposed that the merged club call themselves Albion Rovers was pulling everyone's leg and no-one got it. Instead of plumping for Coatbridge, or Coatbridge United (or were they still in Whifflet back then), they went for "Albion Rovers" - which is like calling yourselves United Athletic, or City Town, or Thistle Star? Always seemed unusual.

I appreciate effectively the same thing happened with Caledonian Thistle but they added "Inverness" back on fairly quickly and at least Caledonian fits better, perhaps even carrying some geographic connotations.


Unusual thing about Ross County is that of course there was no such County as Rossshire by 1929. It had been merged with Cromartyshire to become Ross & Cromarty in 1890s, IIRC.

The street that runs behind the disused terracing at Cliftonhill is Albion Street. I always assumed that was significant in the name.

 

Other mergers, can we do English ones?

 

ETA, I notice he said SFL now.

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Newcastle United were created by the merger of Newcastle West End and Newcastle East End in 1892. 

AS Roma created by the merger of Roman FC, SS Alba-Audace and Fortitudo-Pro Roma SGS in 1927. Fellow Rome football club S.S. Lazio refused to be merged.

Aberdeen F.C. created by the merger of Aberdeen F.C., Victoria United and Orion F.C in 1903.

Inverness Caledonian Thistle F.C. created by the merger of Caledonian F.C. and Inverness Thistle F.C. in 1994.

Apparently in 1999 Bury, Oldham and Rochdale discussed Merging together to form Manchester North End. 

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56 minutes ago, Sergeant Wilson said:

The street that runs behind the disused terracing at Cliftonhill is Albion Street. I always assumed that was significant in the name.

Other mergers, can we do English ones?

ETA, I notice he said SFL now.

As I say didn't they move to Coatbridge from Whiflett?

Perhaps street was named after club/ground.

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3 hours ago, Sergeant Wilson said:

The street that runs behind the disused terracing at Cliftonhill is Albion Street. I always assumed that was significant in the name.

 

Other mergers, can we do English ones?

 

ETA, I notice he said SFL now.

They never moved to Cliftonhill until 1919 sarge so wouldn't be that. 

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4 hours ago, HibeeJibee said:

I still think that whoever proposed that the merged club call themselves Albion Rovers was pulling everyone's leg and no-one got it. Instead of plumping for Coatbridge, or Coatbridge United (or were they still in Whifflet back then), they went for "Albion Rovers" - which is like calling yourselves United Athletic, or City Town, or Thistle Star? Always seemed unusual.

I appreciate effectively the same thing happened with Caledonian Thistle but they added "Inverness" back on fairly quickly and at least Caledonian fits better, perhaps even carrying some geographic connotations.


Unusual thing about Ross County is that of course there was no such County as Rossshire by 1929. It had been merged with Cromartyshire to become Ross & Cromarty in 1890s, IIRC.

Its an unusual name but just the two  original clubs names joined together as sfha pointed out. I suppose 2 clubs called Albion and Rovers were more unusual.

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Not a completed merger, of course, but there was chat in Holland about merging Roda JC from Kerkrade, Fortuna Sittard, MVV Maastricht and VVV-Venlo into one regional entity called FC Limburg.

 

MVV and VVV ended up not going along with it but it surfaced again in in 2008 when Roda and Fortuna discussed coming together, even issuing statement of intent and finding financial backing, this was precipitated by Fortuna's dismal record in the second tier since relegation there in 2002 and Roda's own decline from 1992 onward.

 

It ended up going nowhere ultimately but it was understandably uneasy -https://www.theguardian.com/sport/blog/2009/feb/09/dutch-football-roda-jc-leander-schaerlaeckens

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Seeing the question about SFL has been comprehensively answered, I'll throw in a bit of Denmark for comparison. Here are a list of clubs formed by mergers in the top two tiers of Danish football, a * denotes that the merger took place after 1990.

Superligaen: Brondby, Esbjerg, *FCK, *Horsens, *Midtjylland, *Nordsjaelland, *Randers, *SonderjyskE
1. Division: *Fredericia, *Helsingor, *Roskilde, *Koge, Naestved, *Nykobing, *Vendsyssel

So you have a situation where a club like Brondby are considered a successful and historic club despite being just a tad over fifty years old and not reaching the top flight until 1981.
It's also interesting to note that aside from AB (Akademisk Boldclub) every Danish club is named after the town or region that they're from. Citys, Uniteds, Thistles and Athletics are far too flamboyant to be considered by Scandinavians.

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If we're going down the line of wannabe and abortive mergers, then there are some other notable examples. St Bernard's and Leith looked at merging at the end of WWII - Leith even took St Bernard's grandstand to Meadowbank - but it fell through. In 1970 Clyde tried to 'merge' with Hamilton Accies to play out of Douglas Park as Strathclyde Academicals, but this was resisted. In 1971 Dumbarton tried to 'merge' with Clyde to obtain top tier football, but this was blocked. In 1972 Jock Stein called for mass amalgamations, but nothing came of it.

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On 8/30/2016 at 17:28, HibeeJibee said:

I appreciate effectively the same thing happened with Caledonian Thistle but they added "Inverness" back on fairly quickly and at least Caledonian fits better, perhaps even carrying some geographic connotations.

As far as I know, adding Inverness was at the request of the district council who had given the club a grant towards their new stadium.

Quote

Unusual thing about Ross County is that of course there was no such County as Rossshire by 1929. It had been merged with Cromartyshire to become Ross & Cromarty in 1890s, IIRC.

To be fair, Cromartyshire was just random spread out bits of land enclosed by mostly Ross-shire and Dingwall is the county town.

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6 hours ago, Cyclizine said:

Another merger would be Elgin Rovers (1887) and Vale of Lossie (1888) to form Elgin City (1893).

Good one! City were a merger of Vale of Lossie and Elgin Rovers on 10 August 1893, they then absorbed Elgin Rangers in 1894, and played as Elgin City United between 1901 and 1903

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By the time of the SFL coming into being Dundee had 5 reasonably well supported sides in Our Boys (1877); East End (1877); Strathmore (1876); Johnstone Wanderers (1885) and Harp (1879). There was Lochee and Broughty also - but these areas weren't technically part of Dundee at the time (maybe Lochee was?).

Our Boys and East End merged to form Dundee FC in 1893 and Strathmore and Johnstone Wanderers merged to form Dundee Wanderers soon after.

Harp, previously the city's most formidable side, died a messy financial death in 1897.

Dundee Wanderers, Dundee FC's original city rivas, had one, unsuccessful, season in Division 2. They tried numerous times to be re-elected and even briefly changed their name to Dundee County to do so but were denied every time.

A certain Dundee Hibs (1909) acquired the lease to their ground from under Wanderers who effectively became homeless for a while. They never recovered and are eventually wound up. Lochee and Broughty would eventually follow suit.

The wee Hibs went the same way only to be saved and rebranded Dundee United (1923).


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