EDINBURGH CITY have been forced into a change of name ahead of the new season and will now be called Football Club of Edinburgh.
The capital outfit, who won promotion to League One via the play-offs last month, have been in discussions with the social club that owns the rights to the Edinburgh City name.
With no resolution to those talks, lawyers recommended a name change to protect the club’s future.
Club officials have plumped for FC Edinburgh, with chairman Jim Brown explaining the switch in an address to supporters on Thursday night.
He said: “It became apparent that we don’t own the name. The social club owns the name Edinburgh City Football Club Limited.
“We’ve asked the social club on numerous occasions if they would let us have the name and change their name slightly to let us have the name.
“It’s a major stumbling block. As we grow and get promoted and try to do all the things we want to do, our lawyers have reiterated from the very start that we’ve got no rights over the name.
“They’ve advised us for a long time that we should be trying to get the name to cover ourselves.
“We have a letter from the social club saying we can use the name, which is great just now. But, going forward, we’ve got no guarantees on the name, and as we grow it’s too much of a chance for us to take.
“We always wanted to keep the name. We’ve asked the social club but they’ve stopped communicating with us.
“The legal entity of the club was never ours, which could cause a major problem in the future, so we had to do something to safeguard the club.
“We had to make a choice and it got pushed forward by promotion. We got advised by the lawyers to do it as quickly as possible and there are a few hoops to jump through with the SFA and the SPFL as well.
“We’re all very proud of the fact we’re based in Edinburgh, we’re an Edinburgh team and we’re always going to be an Edinburgh team under our stewardship.
“So, we felt Edinburgh is the key word, Edinburgh is the brand that we want to promote. That’s massive and we felt FC Edinburgh [was best].
“It’s used across Europe by many clubs and they don’t all use the FC, but 'Football Club of' is their name.
“We felt it was a good way to take the club forward, it’s a modern name and it will help us build the club. We felt it was a good name and a name that people would relate to, not just in Scotland.”
