Peebles Rovers pull out of next football season but hoping to make comeback at later date

The East of Scotland Football Association are due to issue fixture lists for next term this Friday but they’ve been forced into an 11th-hour rethink by Rovers pulling out of the coming EoSFL second division campaign, a decision announced on Sunday.

That won’t lead to promotion for Hawick Royal Albert, fourth-place finishers in the EoSFL’s third division last time round, though, as division two will continue as a 15-team table instead of the 16 planned, with one team fewer being relegated next year.

Rovers, tenth-placed finishers in their division last time out on 35 points from 28 fixtures, have decided to thrown in the towel rather than go again as they would face relegation to division three next year regardless of results if they fail to find a new home compliant with league rules within the next nine months.

Whitestone Park, their home ground for almost 120 years, no longer meets EoSFL standards and the club – founded in 1888 as Greenside Rovers and known by their current name since 1990 – can’t upgrade it to enable it to pass muster because of planning issues, forcing them to look to relocate.

They’ve not been able to identify a suitable site to move to yet, with their efforts to date including having a plea to ground-share with the town’s Arnold Clark National League Division 2 rugby team at the Gytes knocked back, leaving them facing relegation if they’re still drawing a blank by next March and being kicked out of the league all together were that still to be the case come March 2027, prompting them to call it quits for now.

A club spokesperson said: “It is with great regret that we have to announce that we have withdrawn from competing in the 2025/26 EoSFL season and its associated cup competitions.

“This is not a decision that has been taken lightly.

“We apologise to the league for the lateness in our communication but we wanted to ensure that there was no other option before we came to that decision.

“Sady, a lack of progress towards securing a compliant ground, together with the threat of relegation due to having insufficient facilities, made it impossible for us to assemble a management team and playing squad to tackle the long season ahead.”

Rovers, members of the old Scottish Football League’s third division from 1923 to 1926, are hoping to make a comeback at a later date, however, though they’re unable to hazard a guess at when that might be yet.

“Peebles Rovers have not folded,” insisted the spokesperson.

“We will continue to pay our association fees and very much hope we receive the support we have been promised over the years to come back stronger in the shortest possible time.”

Peebles being put on hold leaves the region with four EoSFL representatives rather than the handful it had had since 2023 – Coldstream and Linton Hotspur in division two and Hawick and Vale of Leithen in division three.

An EoSFL spokesperson added: “Peebles Rovers have informed the league that they will not be taking part in competitions this coming season.

“That means the second division will again run with 15 clubs, with one fewer club being relegated at the end of the season.”