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Given the way the games being run in this country, being sponsored by crime seems entirely appropriate.

Hamilton - everything about them! Celtic and their "carry on" esp this season and then the of together for thinking that they are the only ones that matter and should do whatever suits them for games/league size etc Man City for thinking that all that matters is how much you can pay for success (could poss have added a few others in this catagory in England). Finally Aberdeen for not realising that we are now in another century and its not the 1980's anymore.

Hamilton. The place the stadium the fans the team.

I get the feeling that once the away record was achieved, coupled with the relative safety from any likelihood of being embroiled in a relegation battle, the players thought "promoted club, job done" and switched off. Hayes injury, and others, certainly didn't help and if there is reportedly some unease in the camp then I can well imagine a few minds have wandered forward to the close season. Last season we didn't wake up until New Year, this time it's the complete opposite. Puzzling.

Call them Kingsmill Telford FC and there'll be even more. I dont think many statasticians would make sense of this poll. To me the results would say that 24 people think there are refuseniks but none know how many. The other thing that makes the poll invalid is the banding within each choice. Choice 1 is 0-50 so if I think the answer is 1 I have a possibility of being 49 out. Another choice gives 900-1500 so if I think the answer is 901 I could be as much as 599 out. Then there's 1500 to infinity. The truth is that those who chose to refuse to support the new team are a small number whereas there are probably a good few others who found themselves faced with the choice of supporting the new scottish league team or sticking with the scottish league team they had always supported. The highland league team in Inverness being the team they went to watch on a saturday when they couldn't go and see their scottish league team. There is no evidence to suggest that one or other of the two teams would have had an increased support had they gone it alone. I was a Jaggy in the early 70's but when I moved away from the highlands I didn't attend football much. I didn't actually start being a regular until ICT,s 02/03 season in div 1 so it could be said that I became a new fan. It is unlikely that I'd have made journeys from central belt to watch Thistle in the highland league and I dont think I'd have travelled up the A9 to watch Thistle as a lone team wallow in the lower leagues. I am a realist and know that thats where any one of the two teams would be now had they gone it alone. Glory hunter .

Call them Kingsmill Telford FC and there'll be even more. I dont think many statasticians would make sense of this poll. To me the results would say that 24 people think there are refuseniks but none know how many. The other thing that makes the poll invalid is the banding within each choice. Choice 1 is 0-50 so if I think the answer is 1 I have a possibility of being 49 out. Another choice gives 900-1500 so if I think the answer is 901 I could be as much as 599 out. Then there's 1500 to infinity. The truth is that those who chose to refuse to support the new team are a small number whereas there are probably a good few others who found themselves faced with the choice of supporting the new scottish league team or sticking with the scottish league team they had always supported. The highland league team in Inverness being the team they went to watch on a saturday when they couldn't go and see their scottish league team. There is no evidence to suggest that one or other of the two teams would have had an increased support had they gone it alone. I was a Jaggy in the early 70's but when I moved away from the highlands I didn't attend football much. I didn't actually start being a regular until ICT,s 02/03 season in div 1 so it could be said that I became a new fan. It is unlikely that I'd have made journeys from central belt to watch Thistle in the highland league and I dont think I'd have travelled up the A9 to watch Thistle as a lone team wallow in the lower leagues. I am a realist and know that thats where any one of the two teams would be now had they gone it alone.

Well said DD! You've called it spot on. The only reason I find any interest in this topic is totally academic since I followed and studied in great detail the entire merger process which is still of that kind of interest to me. Other than that.... * A merger took place in 1994. * Some people didn't like it. Their prerogative. * But all the same it resulted in Inverness being projected from the Highland League to the SPL in a single decade and around five times as many people come to watch football in Inverness now, and in a 7700 capacity stadium, compared with the pre merger days - so who gives a toss!!! "They will none of them be missed!"

Someone famous once said "there are lies, damned lies and statistics". Far be it from me to give Dougal a lecture on research methodology but I think everyone other than him will recognise that his conclusion is complete and utter nonsense. He refers to only 24 folk voting. Had nobody voted at all then presumably he would have claimed that there were even more refuseniks because they have all stayed away from having anything to do with ITC. Had 240 voted then he would have claimed that the high number of people who thought there were a lot of refuseniks proved that was the case. What ever the result, Dougal claims it proves his point. Get real, Dougal. The fact that only 24 people voted demonstrates that the vast majority of people who have read any of this thread think it is such a non issue that they can't be bothered to vote. The vast majority who watched the 2 former clubs are now fully behind ICT and delighted about the success the merged club has had. Some people have refused to watch the merged team - how many, I neither know nor care. What I do know is that I have greatly enjoyed the rise and exploits of ICT over recent years and those who have not shared the thrills over the years have missed out and only have themselves to blame.

No, EXACTLY that number voted NO when the merger question was put for a second time on 1st December 1993 and that was the biggest vote against any apsect of the merger that there ever was at any Caley meeting. Let's also remember the circumstances surrounding the number rising to as high as 226 after 50 had voted against on 9th September. Both sides of the debate within Caley recruited furiously for about two months in order to pack as many people as they could into that Rose Street meeting in a desperate bid by both sides for their will to prevail. So really, that 226 is absolutely dead strength among those who felt that way. Anyone within geographical supporting range and remotely inclined not to attend ICT matches was in there. We also know that a great number of these people, and most of them sooner rather than later, have been coming to games. I also wish posters would stop quoting attendance figures on this thread which are totally irrelevant to the subject. Yes, there may well have been "2000 plus" at Scottish Cup ties but, given a core home support of about 500, I find it difficult to believe that too many of this 2000 plus, who always emerged out of the woodwork for the glorious moments, were rabid, diehard Caley fans who felt so passionately about their club that they resolved never to darken the door of the new one. Out of a core home support of about 500, the majority of whom have for a long time come to games, you just can't get a number of refuseniks of any significant magnitude. If you want to add in a figure for Jags refuseniks, then, like everything else, you have to take a proportionally much smaller number. Then there's the suggestion that there are "at least 20" refuseniks at one work place. That reminds me of the story I saw in a paper today about a search to trace any of the 19 (nineteen) people who apparently attended a Beatles concert in Dingwall before the Fab Four became famous(no off topic jokes please!) You could more or less guarantee that 50 of these 19 will, like Celtic fans who were allegedly in Seville, make themselves known! But the absolute bottom line of this whole tale is - the number of refuseniks, however small, actually doesn't matter. Without their presence, ICT rose through the ranks to the top table of Scottish football within a decade and there it remains. Any other arrangement which suited the wishes of these refuseniks would have had no chance of having done so. So in the words of the Lord High Executioner in The Mikado - "they will none of them be missed!"

something like this sorry pre merger folk but this was the best i could come up with

Hamilton for pritty much the same reasons as Caley100 plus their boring style of play. Dundee for never knowing when to quit spending. Aberdeen for their false sense of accomplishment. The Old firm for the way they dictate most things in the game.

I've decided to abstain from voting.