BSC Glasgow are the prime example of a Scottish Cup success story – starting out as a sports club for children and reaching the Scottish Cup last 16 in less than 2 decades. However, after being knocked out by Hibs on Sunday – what does the future hold for the Scottish Lowland Club?

The club is situated in the Broomhill area of Glasgow (BSC stands for Broomhill Sports Club) and the first team play their games at Recreation Park, Alloa.

You might be wondering – why on earth do they play in Alloa when they are based in Glasgow? Well, they did used to play in Glasgow. For a number of years, they shared a ground with Maryhill juniors, but according to Stephen Prince, chairman and co-founder of BSC, this was ‘unsustainable’.

Mr Prince has said that the biggest factor in this was the quality of the pitch – games were being postponed far too often for waterlogged pitches amongst other issues and the club’s hierarchy was forced to decide to change the stadium. Alloa was seen as a perfect venue as it has a decent capacity, decent pitch and is only a 35-minute drive from Glasgow.

BSC have said they would like to draw up a regular fanbase in Glasgow where more people can attend games, but this may be difficult due to the lack of stadium options available in the city.

A regular crowd and fan base are something that the club will be looking to focus on for the future, in addition to this, they will want to develop young players and bring them through the ranks. That is, after all, why the club was set up, to help children in the local community through sport and then expanded its operations into semi professional football.

The club runs youth teams from every age group from Primary 1 to S6 for a variety of sports. The club will be looking to the youth teams of the future and hoping that they can bare the same success as the first team this season.

There is a sense of togetherness at BSC throughout all age levels and the theme of community is something that under 17’s youth coach Ryan Crawford explains:

“Because of the age level I am coaching, I am getting boys who are in the middle of secondary school and may be at a crossroads with life. They will be influenced by others and may look at drink, drugs and gangs as a means of being involved in something – I want to change that for them and give them a platform to express themselves without that baggage. I see myself as a role model to these boys and hope to make them confident enough that they can conquer anything when they leave here – football or otherwise.”

It does seem like the club is in good hands with the owners. A lot of clubs in Scotland especially have been ran over by people wanting to make a profit, however it seems that BSC will not be going that way.

“We’ve had foreign investment in the last year or so and I can only assume more people will want to invest in us now” 

The future can only be bright for BSC, as they are now in a position to invest heavily in the first team squad and look to gain promotion from the lowland league. 

Promotion to the Ladbrokes League 2 now must be target for the club to enter their next stage of development. 

Regardless of where the club goes from here they must be commended for not only their Scottish Cup run but their sense of community within the local area. Only time will tell whether or not the money made from the Scottish Cup run is invested and used properly.

by Craig Rae