Edusport Academy was established as a residential football academy in 2011 with the aim of developing young French players and giving them the opportunity to improve their English language skills. The purpose behind refining these skills was to give the young footballers an edge in entering into the professional game in Britain.
The academy continues to operate as such, but in 2014, applied successfully to become members of the South of Scotland League, the first private academy to participate in a senior league recognised by FIFA. The following season, Edusport applied to the Lowland League, but was rejected. This did not deter the club for long, as they were crowned champions of the South of Scotland League in 2017, gaining promotion to the Lowland League.
In 2018, club founder Chris Ewing launched ‘Our Football Club‘, an online membership scheme, giving supporters the opportunity to have a more democratic voice in the affairs of the club. With this, Ewing expressed the goal of establishing the senior Edusport team as a separate club in its own right with the ambitious aim of reaching the top tier of Scottish football by 2025.
The current badge employs the colours of the French tricolore and features a small Saltire within its central football, representing the link between France and Scotland. While I appreciate the aim of this badge, I find it somewhat difficult to see as more than a relatively weak corporate brand. For a start, the colour scheme of ‘Edusport’ is reminiscent of the uninspiring SportsDirect.com logo. Additionally, the current badge features text within a shield – a ‘no-no’ under ancient Scottish heraldic law. For my redesign, I went for a roundel which features the club’s name with the French definite article le (l’). I have also included the French word for Scotland, Écosse, which is recognised quite readily in Scotland. Also within the outer circlet are found laurel branches, which are found in the current badge. The centre of the redesigned badge features a stylised ‘EA’ monogram and a red circle representing a football.
The kits are based upon previous iterations of Edusport kits, with thick blue and black hoops on the home kit and red and dark red hoops on the away kit. To me, these seem simple, clean and dramatic.
Nairn County Football Club was established in 1914 and gained admittance into the 
Cove Rangers Football Club was established in 1922. The club takes its name from Cove Bay, located in the southeastern corner of the city of Aberdeen, in which they play.
Stirling Albion Football Club was established in 1945. The club’s formation was tied closely to the end of the Second World War and the dissolution of an earlier Stirling-based club, King’s Park FC (1875). King’s Park were members of the Scottish Football League from 1931 until 1939. In 1940, their home ground, Forthbank Park, was bombed by the Luftwaffe and King’s Park never played again.
Edinburgh City Football Club was first formed in 1928 as an amateur side, akin to Queen’s Park. Although the club joined the Scottish Football League in 1931, they struggled throughout the fifteen subsequent seasons and reverted to junior status in 1946. By 1955, the lease at their playing ground (City Park) expired and the football club folded, continuing only as a social club.
Annan Athletic Football Club was established as a junior side in 1942. Following the dissolution of the Dumfries and District Junior League in the early 1950s, Annan Athletic joined the Carlisle and District League, and after spending some time in the South of Scotland and East of Scotland Football Leagues, they were successful in their application to the Scottish Football League (the predecessor to the Scottish Professional Football League) in 2008.
Raith Rovers Football Club was established in 1883. The club draws its name, Raith, from a vague historical association with the region of Fife from Kirkcaldy (where the club is based) to Lochgelly.
Forfar Athletic Football Club was established when the now-defunct Angus Athletic Football Club second team of the broke away from their mother club in 1885. This young team, dubbed ‘the Loons’—East Angus Scots for ‘young men’—proved their meddle early on, defeating the established Dundonian club, Our Boys, 1-0 in their first match on 16 May 1885.
In early November 2014, when I first redesigned the East Fife Football Club badge, the club was still in the bottom tier of the SPFL. In the 2015/16 season, East Fife were crowned champions of League Two and gained promotion to League One, where they remain today.
St Mirren Football Club was established in 1877. Similarly to 
I was never completely satisfied with this badge redesign. In particular, I found the coat of arms and date difficult to see. Given that this 1981 badge was not an especially popular one among St Mirren supporters, I opted to go a completely different route. I began from scratch, sketching a crosier (a hooked staff carried by an abbot or bishop as a symbol of pastoral office). Most depictions of Paisley’s coat of arms feature an abbot holding a crosier, as Paisley’s patron saint, Mirren (or St Mirin) is considered the founder of the community that occupied the site of what would become the Abbey of St James and St Mirren, now known as Paisley Abbey. Most heraldic depictions of abbots include the head of the crosier closed in on itself, like a spiral, indicating the abbot’s pastoral care for the ‘inward’ community of the monastery. The head of a bishop’s crosier, on the other hand, is depicted as terminating outward.
