Kirkintilloch Rob Roy boss Stewart Maxwell launches petition to bring club home

Rob Roy have been based at Cumbernauld after selling off their former ground at Adamslie Park in 2014

And the Rabs gaffer said the choice facing his beloved club was a stark one – either get back to Kirkintilloch or fold for good.

Maxwell says he has started the petition because he is fed up of the long-running saga surrounding the club’s move into the proposed new Kirkintilloch Community Sports Complex.

When the club sold its former Adamslie Park in 2014 the club had anticipated being given the option of a 25-year lease to operate the facility, using it as a base for the club to develop but also delivering facilities, sporting and social, for the wider community.

The site, due to be completed in September, will include a full-size artificial 3G sports pitch with floodlighting, main stand and VIP stand for spectators, a pavilion with changing facilities, cafe and toilets, car parking, including electric car charging points, and covered bike stands.

Rob Roy still have the proceeds from the sale of Adamslie to help run the new complex – but have now been told by East Dunbartonshire Council they must tender to run the £5 million complex along with any other interested parties.

Maxwell says he is simply fed up with the way the club is being treated and has over 1,000 signatures already.

He said: "I've had enough of the way the club is being treated. It's becoming a joke.

"The club's future is at stake here and I just felt we need to make a stand and push this over the line.

"The comments I've received show just how much the club means to people in the community.

"The council have put every obstacle in front of the club. What happens if Rob Roy don't get this and they give it to Glasgow City ladies or Rossvale or Broomhill? Rob Roy could go under because they decide not to give it to a club in Kirkintilloch.

"There's a non-league professional club in Kirkintilloch with money in the bank, who can invest, who can take it on, who has done all of the community engagement.

"We've tied in with local boys' clubs, ladies' football, mental health, OAPs. Rob Roy are investing their money into the whole community, not just for Rob Roy and nobody else to go and use the pitch.

"It's Rob Roy's plans they've used to build it. It's incredible.

"My honest opinion is that the club can't go on. How can you go on playing away from home? The supporters are disorientated and the response on social media to the petition has been unbvelievable.

"It's such a big club with a big support. For Rob Roy to be out of the town for nearly a decade is a disgrace.

"There's a 144-year-old institution going to go under here.

"I'm desperate to get home for the supporters, the community. The club needs a base.

"This is about Rob Roy surviving and when my time's been and gone if I can help cement Rob Roy's future in that community that's all I want.”

The petition is online at change.org