What would you change..

[_Stefan_Kuntz]

Ex EFL / Football League now in National League North
Gateshead
Kidderminster
Southport
York
Hereford
Boston
Darlington
Bradford Park Avenue
Chester

Gateshead is the one that most folk would not have known. The club was in the Football League (Division Three North) until the end of the 1950s.
Bradford Park Avenue is in my opinion a poorly named revival of the club. Its name had always been Bradford. People referred to it as Bradford Park Avenue to be certain of distinguishing it from Bradford City.


Ex EFL / Football League now in National League South
Maidstone United.

[Blackdogblue]

Ex EFL / Football League now in National League North
Gateshead
Kidderminster
Southport
York
Hereford
Boston
Darlington
Bradford Park Avenue
Chester

Gateshead is the one that most folk would not have known. The club was in the Football League (Division Three North) until the end of the 1950s.
Bradford Park Avenue is in my opinion a poorly named revival of the club. Its name had always been Bradford. People referred to it as Bradford Park Avenue to be certain of distinguishing it from Bradford City.


Ex EFL / Football League now in National League South
Maidstone United.

I think you will find Gateshead are a Phoenix club like AFC Buckets (sorry for those not in the know .. AFC Bury…)..

Gateshead UTD are not the same club.. have googled that one 😎, think it may be more off your list but may be wrong 👍

[_Stefan_Kuntz]

Yes, I recognise that some clubs that have gone defunct have been replaced in their area by new clubs with the same or a similar name.

But this can be anything from a completely new club to being a new company (a new entity) with one or more of the original owners and the name of the club being the same as ever. Also some clubs have slightly changed their names in order to be protected against creditors of the original failed club albeit the ownership is similar to that of the failed club.

So, a new club with entirely new owners set up as a new company is easily recognised as such.

But what about a resurrected club with a band new company, and its original name that has 2 or 3 of the original directors of the club that went insolvent. Do we call that a different club? It is a matter of opinion.

What if a club goes out of business through insolvency. It had 10 directors / owners. They set up a new club with a new company, (real name trading as) i.e. F­arting About trading as Southport FC. This is technically a new club but supporters would see Southport FC with the same owners and just regard it as the same club as ever.

The other extreme is that a club goes defunct, ceases to exist and then at least 10 years later a completely different bunch of people set up a new club with the deceased club's name. I think that the current Accrington Stanley is such a case. Veteran supporters of the club may feel that they have got back the club but it is not the old club at all.

So this is as much a 'hearts and minds' matter for supporters as it is a technical definition of new club.

Is Gretna FC 2008 a new club in the minds of its supporters? I'm not sure how much resemblance the then new 2008 ownership had to the old ownership. So we could say that it is a new club. But it was created immediately after the demise of the old club and it plays at the same ground. This ground factor counts a lot in terms of sentiment and believing that it is the same club. In my opinion it is the same club but I can see how others would regard it as a new club. For supporters sentiment trumps the fundamental technicalities.