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| Full name | Hamilton Academical Football Club | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Nickname | The Accies | ||
| Founded | 1874; 151 years ago (1874) | ||
| Ground | Broadwood Stadium | ||
| Capacity | 8,086 | ||
| Head coach | John Rankin | ||
| League | Scottish League One | ||
| 2024–25 | Scottish Championship, 10th of 10 (relegated) | ||
| Website | www | ||
 Current season | |||
Hamilton Academical Football Club, often known asHamilton Accies, orThe Accies, is a Scottishfootball club fromHamilton,South Lanarkshire, who currently compete inScottish League One. They were established in 1874 from the school football team atHamilton Academy and remain the only professional club in British football to have originated from a school team. Hamilton have won theScottish Challenge Cup three times and have finished runners-up in theScottish Cup twice. The club play their home games atBroadwood Stadium.
 | This articleappears to beslanted towards recent events. Please try to keep recent events in historical perspective andadd more content related to non-recent events.(January 2019) |
Hamilton Academical F.C. was formed in late 1874 by the rector and pupils ofHamilton Academy. The club soon became members of theScottish Football Association and initially began competing in theScottish Cup andQualifying Cup, before joining theScottish Football League in November 1897 following the resignation ofRenton.[1]
Throughout its history, the club has only reached two Scottish Cup finals. The first, in1911, resulted in a goalless draw against Celtic at Ibrox Park. The replay, again held at Ibrox, attracted a crowd of 45,000 spectators and ended in a 2–0 defeat for Hamilton Academical. Their next chance at major silverware was the1935 Scottish Cup final. Despite aBertie Harrison goal (the club's only in a final of a major competition), Rangers went on to win the match in front of over 87,000 spectators by twoJimmy Smith goals.[2]
In the 1970s, Hamilton briefly resigned from the league due to mounting debts.[3] In 1994 the club sold its home ground,Douglas Park, toSainsbury's supermarket, and subsequently ground-shared in Coatbridge and Glasgow for seven years.[3] During this period the club went through financial hardships and unpaid players went on strike.[3] As a result, Hamilton was unable to fulfil one fixture during the 1999–2000 season and were docked 15 points, the result of which was relegation to theThird Division.[4][3] The club moved into itsNew Douglas Park stadium in 2001.[3]
In 2008, for the first time in 20 years, Accies gained promotion to the top division of Scottish football, theScottish Premier League.[5] In the2009–10 season, a 3–0 victory againstKilmarnock on 17 April 2010 secured a third straight season in Scotland's top flight with four games remaining.[6]
The Accies' stay in the SPL ended in the2010–11 season, when they were relegated after a 1–0 defeat away toSt Johnstone.[7] Despite their relegation, Hamilton's time in the top flight was most notable fortheir emphasis on youth, including midfieldersJames McCarthy andJames McArthur, both of whom went on to play for English clubWigan Athletic in thePremier League before gaining international recognition.
After a hard-fought campaign during the2013–14 Scottish Championship season, Accies finished in second position on the final day of the season following a 10–2 home victory overMorton. Despite the disappointment of missing out on automatic promotion toDundee, they went on to defeatFalkirk 2–1 on aggregate in the first stage of theirPremiership play-off to face top-flightHibernian over two legs for a place in the2014–15 Scottish Premiership. Hamilton lost the first leg 2–0 at New Douglas Park, but two away goals in the return leg atEaster Road, including an injury time strike, forced the tie to extra time and penalty-kicks. Hamilton converted all of their spot-kicks and gained promotion back to the top flight.[8] ManagerAlex Neil left the club in January 2015, to take up a position at English clubNorwich.[9][10]
Hamilton found themselves in another playoff at the end of2016–17, this time as the Premiership incumbents. A close tie againstChampionship representativesDundee United ended in a 1–0 aggregate victory, with Accies youth graduateGreg Docherty scoring the only goal.[11]
In October 2017, an elaboratevoice phishing fraud was perpetrated on Hamilton Academical.[12][13] Posing as a fraud investigator for the club's bank (Royal Bank of Scotland), the culprit convinced the club's account handler that funds were at risk from corruption within the company and should be moved temporarily, providing instructions to evade suspicion in the bank's genuine checks when monies began to be transferred.[14] The account handler also spoke to an accomplice via a telephone number provided by the main culprit to 'confirm' the legitimacy of the instructions.[14] With the employee sufficiently deceived, a total of close to £1 million was transferred out of the club's accounts over several transactions, with the fraud being discovered the following day.[13] The incident involved most of the club's working funds, causing the abandonment of a project to improve the youth academy.[12]
In February 2018, having only been able to recover a small percentage of their funds, Hamilton publicly declared that they were preparing to take legal action against the bank for a portion of the loss, believing the bank's security measures to have been inadequate in detecting the fraud (due to the unusual pattern of the transactions and the large sums involved);[13][15] RBS rebutted this but stated they were working with the club and the police to identify those responsible.[13][15] TheAccies chief executive Colin McGowan later described RBS as "morally bankrupt" after he was informed during discussions to prevent future losses that the bank's system did not allow customers to set daily transfer limits.[16]
After spending seven years in the Scottish Premiership, Hamilton were eventually relegated, finishing 12th in the Scottish Premiership in the 2020–21 season, meaning the club returned to the Scottish Championship.[17]
Following their return to the Scottish Championship, Hamilton continued to struggle on the pitch and once again found themselves battling relegation. However, they managed to avoid back-to-back relegations with two games to spare after a 1–0 win away to Greenock Morton ensured safety. Accies eventually finished 6th on their return to the Scottish Championship.[18]
The 2022–23 season was once again a difficult one for Hamilton, as they again found themselves in a relegation battle. They managed to avoid automatic relegation, entering the relegation play-offs. Despite winning the2023 Scottish Challenge Cup final, the winning goal scored in the thirtieth minute byReghan Tumilty,[19] the club eventually lost in the Championship play-off final on penalties to Airdrieonians which confirmed the club's relegation to Scottish League One. This meant that Hamilton had been relegated twice in the space of three seasons, falling from the Scottish Premiership in 2021 to League One by 2023.[20][21] Hamilton were promoted back to the Scottish Championship after defeatingInverness Caledonian Thistle 5–3 on aggregate in the play-off final.[22]
Amid serious ongoing financial issues between the former and incumbent ownerships in 2025, a points deduction from the SPFL due to missed payments led to relegation from the Championship back to League One at the end of what was the club's 150th anniversary season.[23] At the start of the2025–26 season, the club was issued with a transferembargo,[24] and itsyouth academy was cancelled;[25] it was found that the club had breached the embargo by offering payments to players and was deducted points again along with a fine,[26][27] with directors disqualified as a fraud investigation was undertaken.[28][29]
The club played their fixtures atNew Douglas Park, which was opened in 2001, until 2025. The pitch is an artificial surface. The stadium has an overall capacity of 6,018 and is composed of two permanent and one temporary stand.
The ground replacedDouglas Park, which was the home of Hamilton from 1888 to 1994. The ground was opened on 30 May 1888 with a match against Glasgow University. It was eventually sold to supermarket chainSainsbury's in 1994, with the proceeds going towards the construction of the new stadium, which lies adjacent to the site of Douglas Park.
Between 1994 and 2001 the club had no home. They ground-shared atCliftonhill andFirhill Stadium.
From 2022 until 2025, the club shared New Douglas Park withClyde following their eviction fromBroadwood Stadium.[30]
In May 2025 it was announced that due to a dispute with the owner of New Douglas Park, Hamilton would play their home fixtures at Broadwood Stadium in Cumbernauld until further notice.[31][32]
Note: Flags indicate national team as defined underFIFA eligibility rules; some limited exceptions apply. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.
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Note: Flags indicate national team as defined underFIFA eligibility rules; some limited exceptions apply. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.
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![[icon]](/mt/?noimg=&dark=on&url=http%3a%2f%2fen.wikipedia.org%2fwiki%2fFile%3aWiki_letter_w_cropped.svg) | This sectionneeds expansion. You can help byadding to it.(April 2011) |
| Year | Winner |
|---|---|
| 2004 |  Brian McPhee[41] |
| 2009 |  Tomáš Černý[42] |
| 2013 | Ziggy Gordon[43] |
| 2017 | Darian MacKinnon[44] |
| This sectionneeds expansion. You can help byadding to it.(August 2016) |
The following is a list of the officially appointedcaptains of the Hamilton Academical first-team.
| Name | Nation | Years | Notes | Ref |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Alex Neil | Scotland | 2005–2014 | Finished captaincy to become player-manager | [45] |
| Martin Canning | Scotland | 2014–2015 | Finished captaincy to become player-manager | [46] |
| Michael McGovern |  Northern Ireland | 2015–2016 | Signed forNorwich City | [47] |
| Michael Devlin | Scotland | 2016–2018 | Signed forAberdeen | [47] |
| Dougie Imrie | Scotland | 2018–2019 | Retired in 2019 | [48] |
| Darian MacKinnon | Scotland | 2019–2020 | Contract expired | [49] |
| Brian Easton | Scotland | 2020–2023 | Signed forEast Fife | [50] |
| Scott Martin | Scotland | 2023–2025 | Signed forPartick Thistle | [51] |
| Sean McGinty |  Republic of Ireland | 2025 | Signed forAirdrieonians | [52] |
| Scott Robinson | Scotland | 2025– | [53] |
| Role | Name |
|---|---|
| Head coach | John Rankin |
| Assistant head coach | Darian MacKinnon |
| Goalkeeping coach | Ryan Marshall |
| First team coach | Shaun Fagan |
| Sports scientist | Euan Taylor |
| Kit manager | Danny Cunning[55] |
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