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Dear Mr Cameron, I am writing to urge the representatives of Inverness Caledonian Thistle Football Club to vote against any proposal to allow a Rangers newco entry into the SPL on July 4th. I am sure the club is well aware of the views of fans and the wide range of valid arguments being aired on CaleyThistleOnline and therefore I will restrict myself to a few points which I feel are particularly pertinent. The wrong doing of Rangers is without precedent. The scale of the financial irregularity and debt is on a scale unseen before in Scottish football and must be punished severely. Of course, I understand the argument that any application is about the newco and not the old regime and therefore legally the newco is not responsible for its wrong doings. But equally, the newco must not be allowed to benefit from the status in the league which the old club had – a status which was achieved by financial practices which have left a tax debt of millions and dozens of creditors penniless. It might be interesting to consider just where Rangers might be if they had acted responsibly in clearing their debts. If, instead of buying players they could not afford and paying them inflated wages, they put income towards paying their taxes and companies who had provided services to them, then their playing staff would have been much less competitive. Who is to say they would have survived in the SPL in that situation? So why should the club (yes, I know technically it is a new club but we all know it is still Rangers) be rewarded with a place in the SPL because of its appalling behaviour when it might be playing at a lower level had it acted responsibly? A Rangers club has no right to be in the SPL. A place needs to be earned just as this club has earned its place and our local Highland neighbours have earned theirs. Other clubs also work hard and honestly to reach this level and it would be offensive in the extreme to see a newco Rangers with no history gifted a place on the back of the old Rangers former position in the league. Entry to the SPL should be on merit and as Rangers newco has no record of winning a single game of football, then any application should not even be considered for a vote. It should simply be thrown out as being frivolous. To my mind these arguments are strong, but we keep hearing arguments that other clubs will not survive without Rangers. This is scare****ering nonsense on several levels. There will be some loss of revenue but there will be more interest in a league without Rangers and that in turn will bring in additional revenue. In addition, if Rangers are admitted to the league many fans will simply lose their faith in the game and the club and will stop going or will attend fewer games. I for one will certainly not attend matches involving a Rangers newco if they are admitted. It is difficult to be sure what the financial consequences will be but clubs survive fine in the SFL without Rangers and Celtic and it is for clubs to manage their affairs appropriately and in line with the income stream they get. If the Board cannot manage that, they should make way for a Board that can. But this is not a financial issue. It is an issue about the principles which are important in sport. It is an ethical issue. Whichever club is elected to the SPL they must be elected on merit. That cannot be a Rangers newco and if the club votes for them then it will be, by far, the most shameful day in our club’s history. Please, Mr Cameron, vote “no”.3 points
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Nothing to do with jumping ship. If you read all the posts of those with the same opinion as myself you'll see that, if sporting integrity is not upheld and the newco forced to apply the the SFL, then we are turning our back on football. As I've said on a few post I cannot bring myself to support a sport that allows lawbreaking and tax dodging to go unpunished. If I dont pay my taxes I'll be severely punished. The same must apply to any business. I don't think I would go as far as Alex but I have some sympathy with the point of view. For me loyalty needs to be earned and I will not blindly support the club regardless of how it behaves. If the club votes for Rangers newco to be admitted to the SPL then as far as I am concerned they will have lost any right to expect me to support the club through thick and thin. To be honest, I don't really know what I will do but I guess I will stop being a fan and become someone who watches games of football from time to time for purely selfish reasons. What I do know is that if the club does vote to admit Rangers newco to the SPL it will be the darkest day in the history of the club and I will be disgusted with them.2 points
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This is what i am sending to Mr Cameron: Dear Mr Cameron I am a lifelong Inverness Caledonian Thistle supporter and have been since Inverness Thistle and Inverness Caledonian merged to form Caledonian Thistle in 1994. My first match was a home game at the old Telford Street and I have never looked back. Since then, my love for the club and love for the game in general has grown and is one of my favourite pastimes. I have also been a shareholder in the club for many years. As a lover of football I feel it’s the right thing to do too write to you today and express my personal feelings regarding the vote to allow a Newco Rangers into the SPL I feel this situation the SPL and the clubs in the SPL now find them self in is very dangerous territory. Whichever way ICT decide to vote could have serious repercussions for the club. Voting Yes, to allow a Newco Rangers into the SPL is just an unacceptable and unthinkable scenario. Rangers have acted recklessly, unprofessionally and selfishly and to reward this severe mismanagement with a place in the SPL for a Newco Rangers would be nothing short of an embarrassment for Scottish football. Many fans feel so strongly on this issue that they would lose faith with the game if a Newco Rangers were voted into the SPL and as a result, attend fewer games, purchase less merchandise and even not renew subscriptions with TV companies that broadcast SPL games, all of which would heavily impact on a club like Inverness. Voting No is the only way to ensure the integrity of Scottish Football. Rangers cannot go unpunished for their actions and justice must be done. If the situation involving Rangers was happening to another SPL club like Inverness, Kilmarnock or St Mirren for example then I strongly believe that there would not be all this media coverage as we would be chucked into the 3rd Division without a care. The only reason Rangers have not been placed at the bottom tier of the system is because of money. If a Newco Rangers are admitted into the SPL then it will be for financial reasons only and the integrity of Scottish football will be indefinitely tarnished. So Mr Cameron, I urge you to vote NO in allowing a Newco Rangers admission into the SPL. It’s the only way to vote and it is the right way to vote. Yours Sincerely Douglas Mutton2 points
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Who or what is an abstainer? If due punishments are meted out then I will be happy enough to purchase two season tickets for next season. My views are nothing to do with whether ICT vote yes or not. My view is that if this cheating club is not punished to a level suitable to the crime then I want nothing whatsoever to do with Scottish football. Football, for me, is a hobby that I can ill afford as it is without having to spend my hard earned to finance such blatant disrespect for the law. My view is that if any club votes in favour of Rangers then they are doing no more than aiding and abetting law breakers. Everyone who has an honest conscience should be standing up for what is right and decent and not what'll make a few bucks.2 points
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Just to check something, and apologies for going off at a tangent, but you are only a true ICT fan if you renew your season ticket? That's a very big soapbox you have there. As for NewCo this was part of the reason why I didn't renew. Any move to parachute New Rangers into the SPL would completely undermine the set up of Scottish football. As Proctor says, why should teams live within their means when they can go down the easy route of admin, liquidate and then jump back in and start again? It would be a completely abhorrent decision.2 points
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Dear Mr Cameron, My wife and I started watching Caledonian Thistle (remember there was no Inverness back in those days) in 1995, during the club's second season in the league. Since then, our family (ourseleves and our three boys) have supported the team the length and breadth of Scotland, enjoying (and sometimes enduring) the highs and lows of life on the road as a football supporter. Memories such as being one of the 'Stranraer 2' the night Jim Farry made Inverness return south, just 48 hours after a frozen pitch saw off our cup tie; being one of the 'Berwick 17' the night we got dumped out of the league cup; the 5-1 humping we took at Cappielow on a Friday night before Scotland hosted England the next day in the Euro playoffs; Feb 8th 2000; Caledonian Stadium when (a) we got promotion to the SPL the first time (b) we got relegated; the 7-0 game Somerset Park; the 4-3 game at Livingston... the list just goes on and on... these are the memories that define the very soul of a football supporter. It's not just about the result, it's about how you got there: it's about the journey. I believe that whatever you achieve in life, you must earn it; indeed the satisfaction to be gained by doing things the hard way, the proper way, far outweigh anything that you can get on the cheap. Ask any Caley Thistle Highland Marcher how it feels when you get to that ground at the other end of the walk... And so to 'The Rangers Football Club'... this football club has no history for it is a new club. It may have a ground and wonderful training facilities, but it (currently) has no players, and hence no team. I have spent 17 years on the road with Inverness Caledonian Thistle, and here we are, about to welcome our neighbours from over the bridge into the same promised land that we have been part of for so long. Seventeen long years that Highland football has taken to sit at the top table... But now, because it suits the commercial interests of not only the Central Belt majority but the mainstream Scottish media, whose very existence has for so long depended on what was once The Old Firm, we are being force fed the notion that Scottish football needs The Rangers in the SPL. It does not. The Rangers have not earned their right; indeed they have not yet earned their right to any place in the Scottish league. The likes of Spartans and Gala Fairydean have, in my opinion, every bit as much of a right to a place in the league. So in summary, I would say this: if there is one part of Scotland that should understand how it feels to earn the right to play in the SPL, that place is in the Highlands. There is absolutely NO WAY that The Rangers FC should be granted a place in the SPL without first having earned the right by promotion through the league structure, and in the event that it should happen, then my family will never again return to the Scottish game.2 points
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Graham Spiers tweeted earlier: "If current vibes are correct then Celtic, Dons, Hibs, D Utd, M'Well + St Mirren all set to vote RFC to Div 3. A dire fate - but a just one.” I sincerely hope ICTFC also vote to send them to Division 3.2 points
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This. I'd also like to add that the Sky / Espn money (even if it is reduced) could and should be split equally between the 12 teams (instead of most of it going to Rangers (Oldco) and Celtic. The non-Old Firm teams including us have everything to gain. Seize this opportunty - it may be the last chance to save the game in Scotland. Please vote no.1 point
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Not something those threatening to turn their back on the club need worry about at this stage I would have thought.1 point
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The Rangers Do you think they could have come up with a better name, I was thinking of a name thats current and could pay tribute to the late Robin Gibb, what about the Wee Gees?1 point
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if current The Rangers club 12 Newco are relegated, then they could be at home to Cowdenbeath or away to Elgin for the New Year knuckle drag fest, bit of an alternative compaired to Parasite1 point
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The fixtures are currently appearing on the SPL home page at the minute: http://www.scotprem.com/ The New Year Derby is back!1 point
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Rangers has not (yet) been wound up. It is currently going through the liquidation process and that can take months...even years. The share is effectively only worth one pound, and it can only be transferred to someone else with the SPL's permission....so as an "asset" it is of little value to the OldCo and I can't imagine they would want to incur the additional expense of a legal battle to hold on to it. After all, they have no legal interest in the NewCo, and as such should have no interest in whether they receive the share or not. In fact, if I were a creditor of the OldCo I would be asking serious questions about why the Liquidators would even spend time (and thus the creditors money) in attending any SPL meetings. The ONLY reason the SPL (and we are talking the SPL Board, not the Member Clubs) would have for not recalling the share is to give the NewCo an extra vote, and that stinks to high heaven, IMO. So, yeah, it is all very bizarre...but for slightly different reasons than you might have first thought.1 point
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Reading some off these posts makes my blood boil. Are we meant to be i c t supporters or what ?This threatening not to renew your season tickets unless our chairman votes against the newco is shameful .Regardless the rights and wrongs of the rangers fiasco we are supposed to be Caley jags fans and the true ones like myself who renewed mine 2 weeks ago will back the club whichever way they decide to vote . Seems to me that many off our so called loyal fans are looking for an excuse to jump ship !1 point
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Dear Mr Cameron This will be the most important vote this club has had to make since the votes in 1993 Now in them days the existing fans were clearly shafted resulting in a very large numbers of stayaways which still has repercussions to this day hence our average attendance Call it a warning from history but I sincerely hope the club has learnt from the catastrophic mistakes from the past and vote a 100% NO to re-admitting a Newco to the SPL The last thing this club needs is to increase it's number of refuseniks all be it for a totally different reason I've not emailed the club this but if CaleyD could read it in it's entirety at the next supporters trust get together with the club I would be very grateful Regards Dougal1 point
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Long overdue in my opinion. Scottish football has become uncompetitive, uninteresting and most importantly unfair. Time to address it before its too late.1 point
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Not from Sky...........invented by the Daily Rubbish I think the whole Sky rumor is just part of a campain by the Daily Record to bully people into taking Rangers back in and they also want Smith and McCoist in the driving seat. Basically the Daily Ranger is cra**ing it's self about maybe not having this club to write constant stuff about so they float the Sky scare story. In the same way they have this other huge story saying that McCoist will be off within 48 hours which also happens to coinside with Smith saying he wants to buy the club from Green. Then things get smoothed over with McCoist and Green and its seems hes staying. The Record who's sales are plunging in Scotland are up to the armpits in self interest in this one. So should this poll maybe not be about whether people will continue to buy Ranger's biggest supporter the Daily Record? (If anyone on here does in the first place of course!)1 point
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Here is the email I sent to Mr Cameron. As you can see its slightly altered from the one posted on here earlier but thought I would add it in case there was any other valid points etc. Dear Mr Cameron I am a Caley Thistle fan writing to express my opinions on a Rangers Newco. I am of the opinion that a new version of Rangers should under no cir***stances be voted into the SPL. While I appreciate that you have a huge decision on your hands and that you have probably received a number of emails on the subject, I feel it is only right that I contact you personally with my thoughts and to plea to you to vote NO to Newco Rangers. I have contacted the ICT supporters Trust with a similar message as well as expressed my opinions on calythistleonline.com. From an ICT perspective I feel you should not vote for a newco for the following reasons. Football is still fundamentally a sport. While there has often been a clash between commercialism and football; this is the reason the SPL scores are reported in the sports section of the news and not at the same time as the FTSE 100. To let someone (in this case a football club) off for cutting corners in order to achieve commercial gain eliminates any notion of ICT being a sports team and Scottish football being a contest. Dwaine chambers was a big name in his sport but was still banned from competing for breaking the rules. Surely allowing Rangers Newco into the SPL would have an adverse effect on the reputation of Scottish Football abroad? This would make Scottish Football look low-rent which for a league with a number of International TV Deals could have a negative impact on the reputation of ICT and other clubs overseas as a result. Inverness Caledonian Thistle had to jump through a number of hoops to get into the SFL and even more to get into the SPL by sacrificing two clubs with passionate independent support and going to great expense to meet stadium criteria. Many figures at the club have worked hard over the years (the late Jock McDonald for example). Our neighbours Ross County are upgrading their stadium as we speak to play in the SPL. Why should a Newco automatically enjoy the privileges of SPL membership others have had to go to great expense to achieve? Inverness Caledonian Thistle have always tried to live within their means and remain debt free. It could be argued that trying to do things the right way has meant the club has struggled to compete with teams who spend more and are in debt as a result. ICT voting Rangers Newco back into the SPL would mean the club are being hypocritical and devaluing their own good ethics. Why should the club go through the annual frustration of not being able to hold on to their top players when other teams that have effectively cheated can keep theirs and achieve higher league positions and cup runs? Why should members of the board such as yourself spend so long trying to balance the books when others are less scrupulous? The television deal with SKY is often used as an excuse to ensure Rangers stay in the SPL. In my opinion Scottish Football should not rely on television money as TV is a fickle industry. It’s possible that if TV ratings for the SPL or football in general decreased SKY could pull the plug regardless of the presence of the Old Firm? British Professional Wrestling has never fully recovered from being pulled from ITV by Greg Dyke in the late 1980’s; this was a TV sport that famously got higher ratings than the FA Cup Final that soon after disappeared from the airways. Football clubs should ensure that they can survive without this money in the long term as one day it may not be there. I would also like to point out there has been no guarantee that SKY would pull the plug completely on the SPL TV Deal should Rangers not be in the league. I also feel that Scottish football would still appear on TV without the Old Firm. After all SKY show football leagues with less appeal than ours such as the Australian Hyundai A-League and other fringe sports like Elite League Ice Hockey. I fear that if ICT voted for Newco Rangers and fans of the club found out, there could be a backlash and a decrease in support which I fear the club could not afford. I fear this may not just come from our own supporters. I have spoken to a good friend of mine who is a Celtic Season ticket holder and a member of a Celtic supporter’s club. He has informed me that supporters clubs of many SPL teams are planning boycotts of the grounds of clubs who vote for Newco. I am unsure on how accurate or widespread this is but I feel the club may suffer in terms of attendances if this were to happen. Both halves of the Old Firm have expressed interest to leave the SPL which shows a disregard for the wellbeing of other clubs in Scotland. Why should these clubs be sympathetic to them? A few years from now when Rangers are in a better position there is nothing stopping these clubs from saying the same thing again. The SPL clubs (ICT included) should try and ensure they can survive without the Old Firm regardless of how difficult this is. I would rather see ICT playing in a lower league and living within their means than see them being subsidy junkies in the SPL. Having only one half of the Old Firm in the SPL will make it easier for ICT and other SPL teams to renegotiate voting rights and distribution of wealth. This would mean if/when Newco Rangers reach the SPL things are a lot fairer than before. With Newco Rangers automatically allowed into the SPL I feel this would be difficult. Finally, making a Newco Rangers begin life in the Third Division may be a once in a lifetime chance to show how difficult it is for a team to survive out with the alleged land of milk and honey that is the SPL and to ensure that things change for the better down the pyramid. For a club like ICT who have had recent stint out with the SPL and may very well find themselves in that situation again, I feel this is vital as it will impact on the club's future. I appreciate the opportunity to express my opinion on the matter and I also understand that you are privy to information regarding the club and the Newco situation that fans such as myself are not. I hope that you will make the right decision as chairman of the club, I have every confidence that as a businessman and as a man who as always tried to do whats best for the club and it's fans that you will. I do not envy you having to make the decision but I genuinely feel you and the other SPL chairman have a chance to make a real step forward in Scottish football. Yours sincerely James Proctor1 point
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Maybe if we had someone at the top of the tree who actually cared about ICT, and football in general, we could bring back some community/family feeling to the club!1 point
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Love to see Blackie back at ICT, I think he's really improved this season. Plus, we need a hate figure for the opposition/referees now Tokely is away.1 point
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I was in Rome a couple of weeks back and checked out this guy. His name is Joseph Ratzinger but he's known as Ben. Apparently he's a Michael Jackson fan and the nickname is a play on his last name and a reference to Jackson's song about a Rat called Ben. Whilst he's playing in Rome at the moment he is originally from Germany and represented his country's youth league as talented right winger. He still plays in that role and could be a useful replacement for Jonny Hayes if he departs. Ratzinger is getting on a bit and would bring some experience to the team. He's maybe past his prime but by all accounts he can really pull the crowds in and never tires of delivering crosses. Celtic were interested in him a couple of years back and there was media interest when he went to Celtic Park for a trial. Celtic were keen to sign him but the deal fell through on personal terms because he was reluctant to play on a Sunday because of other committments. However, we have fewer Sunday games than Celtic and that should not be a problem. Other personal terms shouldn't be a problem. He is single so there is no family to consider and he is not bothered about how much he earns. I went to his house to see him and boy, is he loaded! He is also knowledgable about ICT. He struggles with the English language but the picture above shows his response when I asked him whether he knew where ICT finished in the league this year.1 point
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