In the ten years following the move to Livingston the club enjoyed notable success, winning promotion to the Scottish Premier League in 2001, qualifying for the UEFA Cup in its maiden season in the top flight (finishing third behind Celtic and Rangers) and winning the 2004 Scottish League Cup.

In July 2009 the club faced further financial problems and were on the verge of suffering a liquidation event before a deal was struck.

A works team[4] of the Ferranti engineering company,[5] they initially played in the Edinburgh FA's Amateur Second Division.

[7] In 1972 the club became members of SFA which allowed them to enter the Scottish Qualifying Cup which they won in 1973[8] which previously had not been open to them.

[9] In 1974, as a result of the demise of Third Lanark seven years earlier, and the new three-tier format of the Scottish Football League, a place opened up in the second division of the competition.

[10][11] The club faced a number of obstacles before they could join the Division as their name did not meet stringent SFL rules on overt sponsorship of teams at the time[12] and the City Ground was not up to standard.

[19] The part-time club began to struggle, and it became a limited company in 1993[19] but was relegated a short time after at the end of the 1992–93 season to the Second Division.

[21] After this, Chairman Bill Hunter claimed Meadowbank had run into severe financial difficulties and were facing closure as a result.

[26] Livingston's first SPL campaign, 2001–02, brought more success as they finished third in the league (behind the Old Firm)[27] and qualified for the UEFA Cup for the first time.

After disposing of FC Vaduz of Liechtenstein on the away goal rule after a 1–1 draw,[29] they came up against SK Sturm Graz of Austria, and after a 14-goal, two-leg affair they missed out on the second round, going out on the wrong side of an 8–6 aggregate scoreline.

[34] It was 13 May 2005 before Livingston emerged from administration,[35] following a period of financial turmoil in which the previous boardroom occupants were ousted to make way for Pearse Flynn's Lionheart Consortium.

[36] Flynn's first decision was to sack Davie Hay, stating that he wanted a younger man in charge,[37] and to that end appointed Allan Preston as the club's new manager.

[40] Richard Gough succeeded Preston[41] and steered the club to survival on the last day of the season with a 1–1 draw with Dundee that relegated Dundee in their place,[42] but Gough refused to stay as manager past the end of that season due to family problems and returned to the US,[43] and former Celtic player Paul Lambert succeeded him.

[59] John Murphy was appointed head coach on 30 June 2009, the same day the club faced a deadline to pay debt to West Lothian Council who owned Almondvale Stadium.

[60] After that was not met, legal proceedings were carried out against the club to come to an arrangement over the debt within fourteen days or potentially face again going into administration.

[61] Livingston were placed into administration on 24 July 2009 by the Court of Session in Edinburgh,[62] and faced relegation to the Third Division, a points deduction or being removed from the Scottish Football League entirely.

An appeal was lodged and as a result the club refused to play their opening Division Three fixture against East Stirlingshire on 8 August 2009.

[93] With two games of the season remaining Livingston were still adrift at the bottom of the league, three points behind relegation rivals Alloa and four behind Cowdenbeath.

[94] A 4–0 win away at Raith Rovers moved the club into 9th place on goal difference going into the final game of the season.

However two extra time Stranraer goals took the score to 4–3 on the day and 6–8 on aggregate, confirming Livingston's relegation to League One, ending a five-year stint in the second tier.

[104] The original strip for the club during the first couple of season in the Ferranti Thistle era was amber and black hoops.

[104] During the recent Livingston era the club have also used all black home strips, and a white and orange kit was used during 2002–03 season.

Three symbols were incorporated into the badge; a football, a thistle and a lion rampant in the centre holding aloft a Scottish flag.

The design of the thistle and the football is altered slightly; with the one major change being the addition of a Latin club motto "Fortitier omnia vincit"[107] with the English translation meaning "Bravely conquers all".

[107] In the Meadowbank Thistle era between 1973 and 1995, the club sourced various shirt sponsorship deals largely from small business such as Ferranti, Sports Conscious, Park & Milton, Raj Restaurant, ACA and PAR Scaffolding.

In 2002, Intelligent Finance, one of the largest employers in the West Lothian area, agreed an initial two-year sponsorship deal with the club worth an undisclosed six-figure sum.

[110] The 9,512 capacity stadium[1] was constructed in 1995[122] as a joint venture between Meadowbank Thistle and the Livingston Development Corporation (LDC).

[173] Their most notable trophy win being the Scottish League Cup in 2004, where they triumphed in a 2–0 victory over Hibernian at Hampden Park just six weeks after entering administration.

[175] In 2015 Livingston lifted the Scottish Challenge Cup recording a 4–0 victory over Alloa Athletic at McDiarmid Park.

[30] Barry Wilson scored two goals against Sturm Graz, making him Livingston's highest goalscorer in European competitions to date.