The club's SFL and SFA identity finally disappeared in 2002. After the liquidation of Airdrieonians, a consortium led by Jim Ballantyne put forward a bid to fill the vacancy in the SFL and build a new club in Airdrie from scratch. That bid was unsuccessful, but the new club then turned their attention to buying out Clydebank's few assets from their administrators. Having outbid UCS for them, the club was moved to Airdrie as Airdrie United and under that title took their place in the Second Division for the 2002–03 season.
