A FOOTBALL club is teaming up with an innovative beer firm to honour the role the sport played in rebuilding lives after the First World War, The National can reveal.
The move comes as Coatbridge club Albion Rovers celebrates the centenary of its Cliftonhill Stadium.
The North Lanarkshire side moved into its Main Street home in 1919, opening the facility on Christmas Day.
The shift came 13 months after Armistice Day as the community continued efforts to rebuild following losses felt at home and traumas experienced abroad.
Eddie Hagerty, chairman of Albion Rovers, says the stadium’s creation gave the men of Coatbridge, including those who had served, an important space to gather in a common purpose and overcome some of the horrors experienced during the four-year conflict, in which almost 900 local lives were lost.
To celebrate that contribution, and mark the stadium’s 100th year, the club has now partnered with local start-up Veterans Brewing to create a special ale to be sold at Cliftonhill and throughout the town.
Some of the proceeds will go to the semi-professional side, while a portion will be diverted to charities supporting ex-service personnel through the craft beer company.
Also based in Coatbridge, it was established by Alex McDivitt and Tommy Watt, two former soldiers each with more than two decades of military service.
Established on Armistice Day in 2014, it claims to be the first craft brewery owned, run and supporting veterans in the UK.
McDivitt, who aided operations after the Lockerbie bombing, told The National: “People always talk about what the community can do for veterans. I also believe veterans should be doing something for the community. It makes sense that a local business and a local club support and helps each other.
“After any major event or disaster there is always a focus on rebuilding. When people came back after the First World War, the focus was to build the community back together. Football was one way of doing that.”
Last night 50 Albion Rovers fans met to taste three ale options concocted by Veterans Brewing, with drinks tinged red and yellow to match the club’s colours.
The winning brew was not known at the time The National went to press.
However, it is hoped that it will become popular with supporters of the League Two side, who will also name the beverage.
It will be available in around four weeks.
Preparing for last night’s event, Hagerty said: “A year after the end of the Great War, there were people who had lost fathers, brothers and sons, and Cliftonhill gave them somewhere to get back a bit of normality – no ifs, ands or buts about it.
“We are so proud of our heritage and, as we run up to the stadium’s centenary at Christmas, the partnership with Veterans Brewing is perfect.”
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