EOSFL Resignation - Response

STATEMENT

Peebles Rovers notes the East of Scotland Football League statement regarding our resignation from the League.

As has been well documented, Whitestone Park, our home for 120 years is now deemed inappropriate for East of Scotland football.

Not every club needs to aspire to the heights of the Lowland League or the SPFL and Peebles Rovers has always operated within its means, unlike a couple of recent ‘pop up’ clubs which have come and gone in short order. The realistic level Peebles Rovers competes at (tier 8 or 9), treats the paying public to the kids’ football standard spectacle of someone in a pair of jeans acting as ‘linesman’. We have always maintained that the same criteria throughout tiers 6 to 9 is completely unnecessary and very much at odds with what is financially viable for most at this level, particularly in the current financial climate.

Notwithstanding that, we have worked tirelessly over the last 2 1/2 years to find a solution to our situation but have been met by headwinds at every turn.

Our resignation has been tendered out of necessity, not of choice. We had been given to March of next year to have a fully compliant ground and it has recently become clear that this just won’t be possible, leaving us with little option to take this course of action     rather than pay fees for season 2026/27 only to be ejected from the League at the season end.

We have had ground inspections and received ultimatums and summonses but, to be clear, at no stage have we received or been offered the ‘bespoke advice, guidance and support’ noted in The East of Scotland Football League ‘Facility Survey’.

As Whitestone Park could not be developed to the now required standard due to local planning restrictions, we were being asked to find a completely new home. This has proved impossible within the timeframe demanded and has therefore forced us into this position.

Many, and perhaps rightly, will take the view that every other club is closer to or at compliance with the ground criteria. However, it remains a source of great disappointment to Peebles Rovers that our unwavering backing of the East of Scotland League, particularly when it was virtually on its knees ten years ago, cannot be taken into consideration to help preserve this historic club.

We will as previously noted continue to work behind the scenes in the hope that someone with some spare land may come forward that could be developed into a facility for a senior Peebles Rovers side and also the youths and kids sections to be proud of.