Edinburgh City announce major update affecting home matches in 2021/22 season

Edinburgh City will play home games on a Friday night next season in a bid to attract more fans to their matches.

Edinburgh City will play their home matches on Friday nights next season

The League Two side, who hope to return to their Meadowbank home by October, are aiming to increase their income by hosting games at a time that will allow more supporters to attend.

The SPFL has given the green light for the Citizens to push on with the plan while the nine other League Two teams are understood to have also backed the proposal.

Further details will be made available in the near future.

A statement from the club read: “Our existing fans have been overwhelmingly generous in their financial backing throughout the pandemic, but in order to increase our turnover it is clear we need to attract more fans through the turnstiles and boost our attendences, which have remained fairly consistent since our return to senior football.

“Our long-term plan is dependant on being able to field a successful team and this is something we are working extremely hard to acheive, however to do this we need to increase our income. This is the biggest challenge facing all football teams and it has been brought even more sharply into focus against the backdrop of the Coronavirus pandemic.

"We often hear from Edinburgh sports fans that they always look out for our result and would love to come and see our matches if they had the chance, so with this in mind we started to think outside the box about how best to make this possible.

"We are now delighted to annouce that for season 2021/22, all our home matches will be under the lights on Friday nights, which we hope will allow a much greater opportunity for anyone interested to come and watch our matches, leaving their weekend free.

"We hope Friday nights can become an iconic element of football in Edinburgh and the East of Scotland.”

The club has also indicated that they should be able to return to Meadowbank before the end of October and in the meantime, has struck a deal with Spartans to extend their temporary use of Ainslie Park.

The ongoing coronavirus pandemic delayed construction work but Edinburgh City chiefs are confident that “the ground will be ready for handover to the council in October”.

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