page_title: Airdrie, North Lanarkshire
section_title: Football
hierarchical_section_title: Airdrie, North Lanarkshire / Sport / Football
caption_attribution_description: English: Penalty kick in Central Park Passing by I witnessed a hand ball on the line and a red card. The goalie saved the penalty kick.
context_page_description: Airdrie is a town in North Lanarkshire, Scotland. It lies on a plateau roughly 400 ft above sea level, and is approximately 12 miles east of Glasgow city centre. As of 2012, the town had a population of around 37,130. Historically part of Lanarkshire, Airdrie forms part of a conurbation with its neighbour Coatbridge, in the territory formerly known as the Monklands district.
context_section_description: The town's major football club is Airdrieonians F.C., who play in the Scottish League One, and are based at the Excelsior Stadium. They were formed as a replacement for the original Airdrieonians, who folded in May 2002; in the immediate aftermath of the liquidation of Airdrieonians, a local consortium quickly formed to establish a new club named Airdrie United. Its application to join the Scottish Football League, playing in the traditional Airdrieonians colours at the Excelsior Stadium (now also known as New Broomfield after the club's former home from 1892–1994), was rejected in favour of Gretna. The owning consortium swiftly devised a Plan B, and bought Clydebank FC from its administrators. Clydebank's sole asset of any value was its place in the third tier of Scottish professional football. The new owners gained permission to move that club to Airdrie and change the name to Airdrie United, which latter club formally inherited the short life history of Clydebank rather than Airdrieonians.  The United part of the name was dropped informally in July 2012, but the club was still officially known as Airdrie United F.C., until a move back to the Airdrieonians name was finally achieved in June 2013.
  The award-winning Gartcairn Football Academy fields a number of teams, including a junior team, Gartcairn F. A. Juniors.
  In addition there are a number of teams competing in the various Scottish Amateur Football Association leagues.
caption: Penalty kick in Central Park
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