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A shame indeed, but we need to keep on our toes as Admin might galvanise them as it has us.

One major root cause is football’s persistence with paying players at levels well above the income they are capable of generating for the club. That creates disasters waiting to happen.

The threads on this forum show how we all felt when we were clinging on to the hope we would not go into administration so I can take no pleasure in hearing this. Hopefully, if this is true, they can also try to get their club facing the right way again too. I think we have seen over the last couple of weeks at ICT that the players have responded to the situation and to the new coaching regime in a positive manner, and I have felt enthused that we would actually not only go on to avoid the automatic drop but could also pull ourselves clear of the playoffs in spite of the 15 point penalty.

I must admit I was thinking of their fans rather than the circumstances that appear to have led to this.

I think you are being too fair minded, Robert. Administration is a consequence of overspending and incompetent governance, as we discovered at Caley Thistle. If Dumbarton have also been sailing too close to the wind then the whole of Scottish football is aware what the consequences are. But my goodness, if this comes to pass then it’s a game changer for Caley Thistle and it will take them four points off the bottom at a stroke. Across the last couple of weeks there’s been growing optimism that ICT could catch one team and get into the playoffs, but now the distinct possibility emerges of avoiding relegation by right, although absolutely nothing can and must be taken for granted.

I do feel for the Dumbarton fans, we all know how they must be feeling so lots of empathy from us. I also feel, however, that Ronaldo is right about this and they’re quite capable of catching Annan. It’s going to be a long hard slog but I think we’re in better shape to survive.

The SPFL has many faults but holding clubs accountable for financial mismanagement is not one of them. The only ones who should feel any shame are those running up debts and then in the aftermath of a global pandemic and cost of living crisis expect others to pick up the tab.

I find it incredibly depressing that the SPFL's sole response to clubs falling into insolvency in the aftermath of a global pandemic and cost of living crisis is to penalise them 15 points in an attempt to ensure they're relegated and face even greater financial hardship. It really is a diabolical abdication of any duty of care or solidarity with member clubs. Not a good look for the game in Scotland and highlights the fact that the SPFL is simply not fit for purpose.

Yes, it’s a very valid point buckett. Also a tough one to provide a response that sees a way ahead that doesn’t boil down to a simple survival of the fittest! i.e we on the south side of the kessock bridge have to ‘win’ over the bulk of the area - region’s fans to support us! Uncle Roy’s been the sole financial backer over the full life of RC in the Scottish League. It’s been to RC’s benefit that one person has provided that stability and funds to develop, (let’s be honest here), a better operation both on and off the field over the last decade. We can bleat about the unfairness, but the reality is we have no right to expect fans to gravitate towards ICTFC simply because we’re the city and base for most of the population. We have to earn their support back or ‘over’. The quickest way is, in part, with a successful team on the park. This is achievable with the right guidance and the early signs already are encouraging. A stable new ICTFC owner that sees the football team an equal and integral part of any business model would be a welcome component of achieving the above. Ultimately, for me it’s a fight for the limited fan base. Waiting for uncle Roy to kick-it isn’t enough. We need to sit down with the new owners and develop a detailed strategy for significantly improving the fan base. tuppence worth

I would agree that Inverness is a large enough town to sustain a top 20 club. Unfortunately the local support is divided between ICTFC and that team based in Dingwall, and the existence of each of these clubs is detrimental to the top-flight aspirations of the other. Put simply, County's top flight sustainability would be much less precarious If ICTFC did not exist, as was ours before they joined us in the SPL.

I think we are back to the notion that it seemed great when two small clubs from the inner Moray Firth deservedly got into the SFL in 1994, but after both of them became a lot bigger - and after £30-40M of other people’s money has been jointly given to them - we find that this maybe wasn’t such a good idea after all. Caley Thistle, who have accounted for around £15M of that £35-40M, are currently going through the resulting reality check and correction, and that is the kind of reality that may also eventually visit Ross County, should the annual seven figure sum that Roy MacGregor is putting in there stop coming.

What a great month it's been for football so far - 2 wins (and a draw) for ICT and 2 wins for Scotland!! Can it get better?

Yes, nobody likes to see this..... However, it's the rules. Pos Team Pld Gd Pts 1 Kelty Hearts 14 10 22 2 Arbroath 14 1 22 3 Alloa Athletic 14 5 21 4 Stenhousemuir 14 2 21 5 Cove Rangers 14 4 20 6 Queen of Sth 14 -3 18 7 Montrose 14 1 17 8 Annan Athletic 14 -15 14 9 Inverness CT 14 0 4 10 Dumbarton 14 -5 0 gg

Sounds like they have been a 'victim' of directors selling assets to themselves/connected parties and then not paying up. Sounds a little familiar.

Queen of the South bus 23rd leaves stadium at 8.30. Picking up in Aviemore and Pitlochry. £20 a seat. Book through Facebook or on 07462218717

Agreed, but with the observation that these factors are not all independent of each other. For example, a poor chairman appoints a poor CEO, who makes bad decisions. Or a poor chairman appoints a poor manager, who.... In the end, it all comes down to the stewardship of the club by successive boards of directors, which, to use a word which is indisputable and not defamatory, has failed.

‘’And if more teams go into administration’ In some respects more cases of small, (I use the term respectfully) clubs running close to the wind financially doesn’t surprise me. Many of the lower league teams have been scrapping by on lower and dwindling incomes and fans for years ( some like Dumbarton for decades). There’s many factors involved but maybe the effect of Covid has had a telling impact on recovery of gate money. The powers at Scottish Football has kept many of these clubs operating for years, but this is unsustainable and now the time has come to ask whether a reassessment of what clubs can realistically operate on a level that is more than just surviving. The argument for retaining four divisions in Scotland’s senior game has imo run its course. I would argue ICTFC have, can and should be one of Scotlands top 20 clubs if run properly. The emotional and historic case for a lot of the div 3 and 4 should be reviewed. Put simply we have too many small clubs that should be allowed to drop into the regional leagues.

The fact that so many different “single” factors have been put forward by various people suggests to me that the decline of Caley Thistle has been a perfect storm of a number of adverse influences all operating in the same negative direction. You then need to consider that top flight football in the remoteness of the Highlands is, especially with another nearby club benefiting from even more external funding than Caley Thistle has, an extremely fragile business, so you also then have a scenario that is very unstable indeed, making disaster that much easier to happen.

Not until a way is found for the club to continue beyond administration. And if more teams go into administration - I was told in the summer that a number of teams were on the brink - then it might not do us any good. It would give potential buyers more choice.

You don’t like to see it happen to any team but, if true, it makes our task a bit easier.

I think we were destined to get relegated at some point. We could have got another manager instead of Foran but who’s to say we would have stayed up? Maybe we would have still got related 2, 3 years later. So for me, it’s the response to relegation. Robbo coming back as manager. We didn’t do that well under him on his return (missing out on promotion play offs in his first season). So maybe another manager would have got us promoted. However, it was Robbo that helped get Scot Gardner his job as CEO. Knock on effect there. Another manager might have got us back up to Prem by now and probably wouldn’t have brought SG to the club.

Easy! Gardiner being born!

This is my shout too. I truly believe if we'd fired him after that match we'd have stayed up?

I can see why folk point to Hughes and the United approach but I don't think that really affected us significantly although it did upset the applecart at the time. For me, persisting with Foran as manager after we were cuffed 3 - 1 or 0 by Hamilton at the end of January 2017 was a massive moment. We were awful that evening and Foran threw the players under the bus in his interview afterwards. He was clearly out of his depth and becoming detached at the bottom of the league (IIRC) and yet we stuck with him and it ended in our relegation to the Championship which we've never recovered from.

Was the rule passed by the clubs voting on it, or was it imposed on them? I genuinely don't know.

Interesting also that they have a supporters trust rep on the club board yet many of their fans saying they had no idea that they were in immediate risk of administration.

I was told around 6 to 8 weeks ago that Dumbarton would likely go into administration due to, basically, fraud. I was sworn to silence at the time but it looks like it is becoming true. It really hammers home how clubs need good directors to challenge inappropriate behaviours by others.

Easy to see how that could happen, especially if we don’t start getting more goals from strikers. Top scorers in league matches: 3 - Devine 2 - MacKinnon 1 - various others including Billy