North Lanarkshire Council claim Clyde have not paid the rent on the stadium
Lanarkshire MSP Cathie Craigie fears for the future of Clyde Football Club as first-team coach Gary Bollan became the latest casualty of poor finances.
Clyde have been threatened with eviction by Broadwood Stadium's owners because of unpaid rent and have axed Bollan after agreeing compensation.
"I do fear for the future of the club," Craigie told BBC Scotland.
"Clyde is an important part of Cumbernauld and important to the area's youth and the club's supporters."
Craigie has urged Broadwood Stadium Company and North Lanarkshire Council, which set up the private limited firm to run the facility, to enter talks with the First Division club.
"People need to talk," she said. "Broadwood Stadium board, Clyde Football Club and North Lanarkshire Council need to get round the table and discuss this matter and see if we can find a solution that takes us out of the present situation and put security in place for the future.
"Obviously, the Broadwood Stadium Board and North Lanarkshire Council have a duty to the taxpayers to ensure they are paid for services and goods that they supply.
We were due to be chatting with North Lanarkshire Council in a bid to resolve this matter, but I believe they have reneged on that agreement
Clyde director John Ruddy
"But Clyde Football Club would be a great loss to all of us."
Craigie recognised that the club had not been embraced by as many among the local community as had been hoped since it moved into the town 15 years ago.
But she stressed: "Clyde Football Club bring a lot of publicity to the town.
"Whenever they play a big team, they get international, never mind national, coverage.
"And they invest a lot in the youth and schools football in Cumbernauld and Kilsyth."
Clyde's on-field troubles deepened on Saturday when they slipped two points adrift of Airdrie United at the foot of Division One after a 1-0 defeat at home to Livingston.
Two days later, they parted company with former former Dundee United defender Bollan, who was previously head of the Clyde youth system.
Meanwhile, Clyde director John Ruddy's claim that North Lanarkshire Council has ulterior motives for taking action against the club were being dismissed as "mischievous and misleading".
Stadium company chairman Jim Logue said: "There is no hidden agenda. We want Clyde Football Club to continue as tenants.
"But, like every commercial operation, they must be able to pay their dues.
"Our legal advisors, McGrigor Donald, have informed us that the board of Broadwood Stadium is in danger of operating illegally if we continue on the present path.
"We are not prepared to put the future of the stadium and the facilities that it offers to the wider community at risk."
It appears that the company believe that the facility could survive as a going concern without the football club, which itself could face liquidation.
Ruddy, who claims Clyde owe £150,000 and not the £270,000 suggested by the stadium owners, said that the council had ignored requests for a meeting about the crisis.
"We were due to be chatting with North Lanarkshire Council in a bid to resolve this matter, but I believe they have reneged on that agreement," he said.
The stadium company has given Clyde an eviction date of 26 April, after which they would have to find an alternative venue for their home matches.
Clyde, who launched a fund-raising campaign in light of their present financial problems, previously spent an eight-year spell without a permanent home after they were forced to quit Shawfield Stadium in Rutherglen, near Glasgow, in 1986.
They shared Firhill Stadium with Glasgow rivals Partick Thistle then Hamilton Academicals' Douglas Park until the construction of the stadium in Cumbernauld, 13 miles from their original home.
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