Gala Fairydean F.C.

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Gala Fairydean F.C. is a football club currently playing in the East of Scotland Football League.

Founded in 1907 as the result of a split in the Gala Fairydean Rovers club into Gala Fairydean and Gala Rovers ^[1], they play their home matches at the Netherdale occasionally referred to as “the San Siro of the Borders” ground in Galashiels. The club appointed Bryan Templeton and Derek Hancock in the summer of 2006 in a bid to revive the clubs fortunes after a few barren years when the team consisted of mostly Edinburgh based players which resulted in dwindling crowds due to no local interest. The management team have promised to go "local" again in a bid to bring the crowds and the glory days back to Netherdale.

Gala Fairydean applied to join the Scottish Football League in 1966, 1994, 2000 and 2002 when various vacancies opened up membership slots, but were unsuccessful on each occasion, the last time losing out to Gretna F.C. after the bankruptcy of Airdrieonians F.C. and due to Gretna's liquidation on 3 June 2008, they were thought to be applicants for the SFL but there was no formal application from Gala Fairydean to enter the SFL so they will remain in the East of Scotland League.

Its most famous son is former Celtic, Scotland International and ex-Hibernian F.C. manager John Collins, who under his father Norrie's eye, trained and joined the club, before moving onto Hibernian as a young player. In 2007 Gala Football Club were given their Quality Mark from The SFA, and the new look changing rooms were opened by John Collins.

Other famous players include Fred Blackie, Steve McClaren, Alan Doyle, Garry Fraser, Scott Fraser, Rob Headspeath, Norrie & Neil Collins, John Clayton.