Relocation of association football teams in the United Kingdom is a practice which involves an association football team moving from one metropolitan area to another, although occasionally moves between municipalities in the same conurbation are also included. For relocations in other sports see Relocation of sports teams in the United Kingdom; for relocations in other parts of the world see Relocation of professional sports teams.
In British football the relocation of teams away from their traditional districts is unusual because of the nature of the relationship between clubs and their fans: the local football club is regarded by most British football supporters as part of the local identity and social fabric rather than as a business that can be transplanted by its owners at will. As a result, any relocation plan would be strongly opposed by fans in the club's original area, and unlikely to succeed in most new locations due to the existence of established teams in most towns and cities that would already have secured the loyalty of native supporters. John Bale, summarising a study published in 1974, writes that, in the view of most fans, "Chelsea would simply not be Chelsea" were that club to move a few miles within the same borough to Wormwood Scrubs.
However, there have been examples of club relocations, primarily motivated by difficult financial situations or problems with the home ground. So far this article lists 61 relocated teams, 12 clubs with failed relocation proposals, and 19 changes in identity in total in men's football and 13 relocated teams and 10 changes in identity in women's football.
Association Football (men's) The geographic redistribution of the 92 Football League teams was considered a possible eventuality by some around that time, including Sir Norman Chester, who headed an investigation into the condition of English football in 1968. Before the 1986–87 season, clubs could not be relegated out of the League's Fourth Division. The bottom four clubs had to apply for re-election by the other member clubs at the end of each season, alongside any non-League teams who wished to take their place, but the replacement of an established League side in this way was quite rare. From the inaugural post-war season (1946–47) through to 1985–86, clubs already in the League were supplanted on only six occasions. "New communities have developed ... which lack clubs in League membership", Chester reported, in 1968. "Amalgamations of old clubs would provide vacancies for new clubs to enter the League. Alternatively the movement of established clubs to new communities could provide a way both of saving old clubs and at the same time bringing League football to new and growing areas." Having been established in 1967 as the largest of the "new towns" springing up across southern England and the Midlands, In England, Milton Keynes, the largest of these, provided a clear staging ground for such an experiment: Clyde F.C. (to Cumbernauld) and Livingston F.C. (née Meadowbank Thistle F.C., to Livingston) had already done so in Scotland.
At the end of the 1978–79 season, 20 leading non-League clubs left the Southern League and the Northern Premier League to form the Alliance Premier League. This national non-League division started in the 1979–80 season and renamed itself the Football Conference in 1986. Since the 1986–87 season, the champions of the Conference have received promotion to the Football League, with the League's bottom club being relegated to the Conference in exchange. This was expanded to the Conference champions and the winners of a promotion play-off before the 2002–03 season, with the worst two League clubs being relegated. The situation of the Football League "closed shop", which for nearly a century effectively barred most non-League clubs from accession, therefore no longer exists.
According to the Football League's statement to the independent commission on Wimbledon F.C. in May 2002, the English League "had allowed temporary relocations for good reasons outside 'conurbations' in respect of certain clubs where it was intended the club would return, but there has been no previous occasion on which the Football League had granted permission to a club to relocate permanently to a ground outside its 'conurbation'." Clubs in the English professional ranks that have relocated to other locales within their traditional conurbations include Manchester United and Woolwich Arsenal, who moved and respectively in 1910 and 1913. South Shields of the Third Division North relocated west to Gateshead in 1930 and renamed themselves Gateshead A.F.C. The commission reported that there was no Football League precedent for a move between conurbations, but stressed that there was direct precedent for such a move in Scotland.
Relocations of teams which assumed new identities
Chessington United → Mole Valley Predators Chessington United merged with two youth teams, Predators F.C. and Fetcham Park United, and changed their name to Mole Valley Predators F.C. in 2005. They relocated from Chessington to Leatherhead, Surrey.
Clydebank F.C. → Airdrie United F.C. Clydebank F.C. in 2002 was taken over by Airdrie United F.C. and played their games at Airdrie following the earlier liquidation of Airdrieonians, though the club was founded as a continuation of Airdrieonians and did not take over Clydebank until after their application for the old Airdrie club's league place was refused. As a result, Airdrie United were placed in the Second Division for the 2002–03 season, taking the place that would have been occupied by Clydebank. A year later, the Clydebank fans founded a new club, bearing the same name. In 2013, Airdrie United, with the approval of the Scottish Football Association, changed their name to Airdrieonians.
Distillery F.C. → Lisburn Distillery F.C. Distillery F.C. started in Belfast, Northern Ireland, then were homeless for many seasons in the 1970s sharing grounds with other clubs until settling in Ballyskeagh, near Lisburn, later adding the latter town's name to theirs, now known as Lisburn Distillery F.C.
Emley F.C. → Wakefield & Emley F.C. → Wakefield F.C. After a poor to average couple of seasons in the late 90s, it emerged that Emley A.F.C. (1903) were looking to leave the village. This was due to ground regulation gradings. The League brought in new regulations, concerning three-sided grounds, that meant Emley would be thrown out of the league unless they spent vast amounts upgrading. The club was unable to expand their ground and were forced to look for a new one. A ground share with Rugby league club Wakefield Trinity Wildcats was suggested, then the club played a couple of games at Wakefield's Belle Vue ground. Although primarily a rugby city, the club moved to Wakefield's Belle Vue for their home games in the 2000–01 season.
In the close of 2002 season the club decided to renamed itself Wakefield & Emley F.C. This alienated some of the village supporters as the club frequently began to be referred to as simply "Wakefield". 2003–04 saw Wakefield & Emley's worst ever season in senior football, they finished bottom of the Northern Premier League Premier Division.
The club changed its name once again in the 2004–05 season, this time to Wakefield–Emley F.C. In the close season Northern Counties East League disbanded its reserve division. The Wakefield-Emley reserve team had continued in that division when the first team were promoted to the NPL. They also continued to play at the old Welfare Ground in Emley. With the loss of the league, some former officials of the club decided to form a new club—A.F.C. Emley.
As there was now a new club in Emley, the board decided to drop the name "Emley" and continued on as Wakefield F.C.; the club changed colours and moved to College Grove in Wakefield, becoming fully a Wakefield club.
Wakefield F.C. was wound up in June 2014, and AFC Emley was renamed as Emley A.F.C. in the summer of 2019.
Horwich RMI F.C. → Leigh RMI Horwich RMI F.C., was founded in 1896 in Horwich. During the 1994–95 season, the club realised their ground Grundy Hill would not be able to help the clubs' prospects of achieving success up the football pyramid, made the decision to move from Horwich seven miles south to Hilton Park in Leigh, home of the rugby league club Leigh Centurions. As part of this deal, a new company, Grundy Hill Estates, was formed to take over the ownership of the shared ground. Once the move had been finalised and agreements had been made to share the 10,000 capacity stadium, the club officially changed their name to Leigh RMI to reflect their new surroundings. RMI lost its first match at Hilton Park in March 1995 to Boston United 4–0, and ended up being relegated at the end of the 1995 season. Its name was changed again in June 2008 when the club became Leigh Genesis F.C.
Negretti and Zambra F.C. → Stocklake F.C. Negretti and Zambra F.C. was established in the 1930s, a works team for the Negretti and Zambra company in the King's Cross area of London. When the company relocated to the Stocklake Industrial Estate in Aylesbury in 1949, facilities were set up for the sports teams and the club joined the Aylesbury & District League in 1954.Club History Aylesbury F.C. The company later sold the sports facilities to the council, at which point the club was renamed Stocklake F.C. The club underwent mergers and several name changes and are now known as Aylesbury F.C.
Runcorn F.C. → Runcorn F.C. Halton Founded in 1918 as Highfield and Camden Tanneries Recreation Club, the club renamed a year later to become Runcorn F.C., after its home town Runcorn.
In 1993–94, the club's stadium nearly fell apart; a perimeter wall collapsed during a cup game against Hull City, the roof blew off one stand, and the main stand was destroyed by a fire. This crippled the club, which was relegated in 1996 for the first time ever. In 2000, they sold the Canal Street ground where they had played since 1918, and moved to the 11,000-seat Halton Stadium in Widnes, which was also used by the town's rugby team and Everton reserves. The club renamed itself Runcorn FC Halton to reflect its new location.
In 2005 the club's precarious financial state caused them to move out of the Halton Stadium permanently, having finished the previous season at Southport's Haig Avenue, and to share Valerie Park, home of local rivals Prescot Cables, who also played in the Northern Premier League.
During its final season in 2006 the club went into severe financial crisis and was unable to pay its players' wages, forcing it to offload many of its key playing staff and replace them with amateur players used to playing at a much lower standard. This made for an embarrassing end to the season, with Runcorn finishing bottom and frequently suffering defeats by five or more goals and after a second successive relegation, the club's future was in doubt, and the decision was made to officially confirm its resignation from the league and cease activity.
South Liverpool F.C. (1890s) → New Brighton A.F.C. South Liverpool F.C. founded in the late 19th century relocated in 1921 to the seaside resort of New Brighton, Merseyside and the club became New Brighton A.F.C. South Liverpool's supporters who were unhappy with the situation founded a new team of the same name in 1935.
South Shields F.C. (1889) → Gateshead F.C.