Amateur era is over at Queen’s

QUEEN’S PARK last night reached a landslide decision to end 152 years as an amateur club and turn professional. And club president Gerry Crawley insisted Scotland’s oldest senior club had no choice but to make the historic switch. Requiring a 75-per-cent majority to make the change, members voted in favour by 91 per cent at a Hampden EGM. Speaking to Sportsmail afterwards, Crawley

admitted it was a huge wrench for members to tear up the club’s traditions. But he claimed the move was necessary to stop bigger clubs picking off their best young talents and to prevent a plunge into the Lowlands League. Predicting a bright new future for the Spiders, Crawley said: ‘This is a big moment for Queen’s Park. It allows us to plan for a brighter future. ‘We hope to garner more interest, more support and create some new history. ‘Everyone including me would agree it was an emotional evening. ‘I think everyone had second thoughts at some point. ‘But, ultimately, we had to ask the question, what else could we do? We had no real choice. ‘We tried to be open and inclusive and it looks as if we have the support of the membership. It’s all about how do we move forward now? ‘This allows us to put together a plan to become more competitive and retain our league place and put a plan together to become more vibrant and relevant. ‘There is no flick of the switch. It will be a transition of weeks and months rather than days. ‘But we have been working in the background to forge a plan to become a thriving club.’ As Sportsmail first revealed, Lord Willie Haughey — one of Scotland’s wealthiest businessmen — has offered to bankroll the move after the Spiders committee warned that an inability to offer professional contracts was making it impossible to retain their best young players. The move to professionalism follows another recent change in the club’s status, with a deal to sell their traditional Hampden home to the SFA for £5million poised to go through after the Euro 2020 finals. Facing a bill of £2.5m to upgrade their new home at Lesser Hampden by a projected entry date of January 1, 2021, the Queen’s Park hierarchy warned members that failure to abandon their amateur status could see the League Two club drop through a ‘trap door’ to the SPFL Lowlands League. They are currently sixth in League Two after 12 games, eight points above bottom club Brechin City.