Scotty

I just got the bill for the player sponsorship also ... it is £900 and on the one hand it is 0.45% of the total required, but on the other hand it is also potentially in the wind if we go into administration.

I could email to the club, and I may do so, but also happy - as a member - for the Trust to collate a bunch of questions and ask these as a group. The board really do need to be held accountable, and as much as we all loath the former CEO and blame him for everything, the reality is that his predecessor was also terrible and the board themselves have not appeared to do much, if any due diligence when either was at the helm. The buck stops with them and ignorance to the day-to-day running of the club is no excuse or explanation. I did a quick read of P&B today for the first time in a long time and reading the ICT thread, one of the biggest things that is being mentioned time after time is the ludicrous kit deal ... a minimum spend of £125,000 per year, every year for 3 years is unheard of at this level and many on there are theorising some dodgy dealings or kickbacks or commissions. I have no idea if those comments have any merit or not, but surely a deal of this magnitude must have had to go through the board for approval. If they signed that then what f****** planet are they on? If they weren't aware of it, then why the hell not. In my day job, I work in software and vendor management and have negotiated and have frequently initiated and/or signed multi-year deals like this, primarily because it offers benefit to my company compared to a single year deal, which is perhaps why I think this deserves more scrutiny. In my case, before any signatures are in place, especially when it reaches 6 or 7 figures (or higher), then it ultimately goes to my CIO to make sure it passes the sniff test, and all is right. It is also an opportunity for me to explain the structure, the risk, the current situation, and the required get-out clauses for both sides that I must build-into any multi-year agreement. It is also an opportunity for other eyes to make sure I have not made any errors or off the scale assumptions. Thats how it should be.

Crossposting this here from the Investment thread as this may be most appropriate place. Also adding the shareholder letter as an attachment that Charles was attempting in post 1. Still no accountability from our board though ... and more worryingly, still an undercurrent of thought that Makwana was a viable investor! As I make a personal comment on each of those quotes I highlighted below from the email from Panos this morning I am getting angrier and angrier at how much he is seeking to whitewash the board's role in this and their lack of governance. Whoever wrote this email for him is trying to spin a situation that has already spun out. Utter honesty and admission of failure would have been more appropriate in this instance. Really? You had no idea before? Thats an admission that you employed ZERO governance on the former CEO. Think you have this reversed. What about seller expectations? and buyer ability? If you seriously considered this then you are utterly incompetent. 100s of unqualified fans who spent 5 minutes or less googling raised enough red flags in just a few hours that would have kept Mao Tse-Tung happy for decades. Thats more googling than the prospective 'owner ' did by his own accounting. You then spent weeks wooing this serial fantasist and even now the courier articles from back then are cringeworthy at how gullible everyone seemed to be (except the fans, Alan Savage and Duncan Shearer). Did we investigate who gets commission on this deal? At full retail that's 2500 shirts per year for 3 years. Given that we won't pay full retail for these and there is an insane markup of football shirts, that could be as many as 5000 shirts per year or a combo of various merchandise. Seems insanely high and not a deal worked out based on the size of the club fanbase, nor the level of our merchandise sales and therefore quite possibly not to the benefit of the club. Something doesn't smell right in this deal. No shit Sherlock! A little bit f***ing late for all of that now. When asked 5 years ago, many of us presented ideas that were summarily ignored, or perhaps left in unread emails. Hundreds of supporters have reported they have sent emails to the club without response and NOW you ask us for ideas. Where were your statutory duties back in 2019 or 2021 or even 2023? What condescending sh1te. For the last 5 years the fans have been ignored and looked down upon by the very same people (Alan Savage aside) who are now coming at us with the begging bowl and hailing supporters as lifeblood. Which one is it? You can't have it both ways. The Supporters Trust have been derided publicly by the [former] CEO - who was allowed to do so by the board - and as the main, formally recognised, fan body, ignored by you all until we are now in the last chance saloon. This board really do beggar belief. Hypocrites. So -£5 million quid in 5 years and not one of you had a f****** clue that we were in deep financial doo-doo and/or had the balls to call either of our former CEOs who held those purse strings to account? Again, where were your statutory duties when this was occuring? Online broadcast and questions for the diaspora outside of Inverness? Lots of committed fans in Scotland, elsewhere in the UK, and internationally. Probably not then. That will be a f****** first. But given that it's unlikely you will make this an online meeting here's a few to be going on with ... I will likely think of many more, as will others on here. You say Alan Savage gave you clarity... WHY did you not have this before? Given your professional qualifications as a respected orthopaedic surgeon would you care to comment on the treatment dished out to our injured players, specifically the accusation made against you by Aaron Doran, and also in general to the club's treatment of other players who were - based on opinions expressed - 'cast aside' by the club over the last 5 years, in some cases while recovering from injuries. This may seem like old news but given the success of a crowdfunding request by one of those players cast aside (Sutherland), on behalf of another (Doran), and the sheer speed by which it reached and surpassed its crowdfunding goal, it may be pertinent to clear the air 'frankly' as you seek to use the same platform to crowdfund for the club. Please explain the internal governance methodology employed over the last 5 years that has seen the previous model of fiscal responsibility at the club (which also struggled to make ends meet each year) torn down and replaced with schemes that seem to have generated a shortfall of £5m in 5 years. Was the board aware of this and if they were, why was it allowed to get to this stage. If not aware, why not? Why did we rely on the assumption that one after another pie-in-the-sky schemes would come to fruition rather than work with what we had, taking small positive steps, and view these schemes as a windfall IF they happened. Please explain why you have failed to communicate with fans over the last 5 years. It is not a secret that this has been happening, so saying you did not know is utter BS, but yet the action of not responding, or not taking any action to instruct those who should be responding has been allowed to continue and is therefore condoned. Do you feel that you and the board of directors have behaved in a manner that is always for the good and benefit of the club? If not, why have you remained in place? That would be a question to each and every board member individually not collectively. Final Thoughts IF the club fails Panos, you and every single one of your board will forever be seen as 'Neros'. Fiddling while ICT burns. So let's see who prefers to be a Hero rather than a Zero. Shareholder Letter 1 October.pdf

The whole thing just comes across as the board taking no accountability whatsoever for the mess we are in. The former CEO will - quite rightly - be thrown under the bus for his actions, which we will likely only ever scratch the surface of, but each and every one of them is also culpable if they did not question him or raise objections when it was clear we were losing money hand over fist. And if it is all SG's fault, then what about all the stuff that happened under his predecessor's watch? I can personally attest to dealings with the former CEO before SG that were downright sleekit and left CTO thousands of pounds out of pocket. I will say I do not trust ANY of them right now and any respect I had for any of them is gone. Respect can be earned back, but trust ... thats harder.

Still no accountability from our board though ... and more worryingly, still an undercurrent of thought that Makwana was a viable investor! As I make a personal comment on each of those quotes I highlighted below from the email from Panos this morning I am getting angrier and angrier at how much he is seeking to whitewash the board's role in this and their lack of governance. Whoever wrote this email for him is trying to spin a situation that has already spun out. Utter honesty and admission of failure would have been more appropriate in this instance. Really? You had no idea before? Thats an admission that you employed ZERO governance on the former CEO. Think you have this reversed. What about seller expectations? and buyer ability? If you seriously considered this then you are utterly incompetent. 100s of unqualified fans who spent 5 minutes or less googling raised enough red flags in just a few hours that would have kept Mao Tse-Tung happy for decades. Thats more googling than the prospective 'owner ' did by his own accounting. You then spent weeks wooing this serial fantasist and even now the courier articles from back then are cringeworthy at how gullible everyone seemed to be (except the fans, Alan Savage and Duncan Shearer). Did we investigate who gets commission on this deal? At full retail that's 2500 shirts per year for 3 years. Given that we won't pay full retail for these and there is an insane markup of football shirts, that could be as many as 5000 shirts per year or a combo of various merchandise. Seems insanely high and not a deal worked out based on the size of the club fanbase, nor the level of our merchandise sales and therefore quite possibly not to the benefit of the club. Something doesn't smell right in this deal. No shit Sherlock! A little bit f***ing late for all of that now. When asked 5 years ago, many of us presented ideas that were summarily ignored, or perhaps left in unread emails. Hundreds of supporters have reported they have sent emails to the club without response and NOW you ask us for ideas. Where were your statutory duties back in 2019 or 2021 or even 2023? What condescending sh1te. For the last 5 years the fans have been ignored and looked down upon by the very same people (Alan Savage aside) who are now coming at us with the begging bowl and hailing supporters as lifeblood. Which one is it? You can't have it both ways. The Supporters Trust have been derided publicly by the [former] CEO - who was allowed to do so by the board - and as the main, formally recognised, fan body, ignored by you all until we are now in the last chance saloon. This board really do beggar belief. Hypocrites. So -£5 million quid in 5 years and not one of you had a f****** clue that we were in deep financial doo-doo and/or had the balls to call either of our former CEOs who held those purse strings to account? Again, where were your statutory duties when this was occuring? Online broadcast and questions for the diaspora outside of Inverness? Lots of committed fans in Scotland, elsewhere in the UK, and internationally. Probably not then. That will be a f****** first. But given that it's unlikely you will make this an online meeting here's a few to be going on with ... I will likely think of many more, as will others on here. You say Alan Savage gave you clarity... WHY did you not have this before? Given your professional qualifications as a respected orthopaedic surgeon would you care to comment on the treatment dished out to our injured players, specifically the accusation made against you by Aaron Doran, and also in general to the club's treatment of other players who were - based on opinions expressed - 'cast aside' by the club over the last 5 years, in some cases while recovering from injuries. This may seem like old news but given the success of a crowdfunding request by one of those players cast aside (Sutherland), on behalf of another (Doran), and the sheer speed by which it reached and surpassed its crowdfunding goal, it may be pertinent to clear the air 'frankly' as you seek to use the same platform to crowdfund for the club. Please explain the internal governance methodology employed over the last 5 years that has seen the previous model of fiscal responsibility at the club (which also struggled to make ends meet each year) torn down and replaced with schemes that seem to have generated a shortfall of £5m in 5 years. Was the board aware of this and if they were, why was it allowed to get to this stage. If not aware, why not? Why did we rely on the assumption that one after another pie-in-the-sky schemes would come to fruition rather than work with what we had, taking small positive steps, and view these schemes as a windfall IF they happened. Please explain why you have failed to communicate with fans over the last 5 years. It is not a secret that this has been happening, so saying you did not know is utter BS, but yet the action of not responding, or not taking any action to instruct those who should be responding has been allowed to continue and is therefore condoned. Do you feel that you and the board of directors have behaved in a manner that is always for the good and benefit of the club? If not, why have you remained in place? That would be a question to each and every board member individually not collectively. Final Thoughts IF the club fails Panos, you and every single one of your board will forever be seen as 'Neros'. Fiddling while ICT burns. So let's see who prefers to be a Hero rather than a Zero.

Presumably he is either already a shareholder, or converted some of the monies owed to him into shares so would be entitled to attend? Whether he does or not is another question. Semantics aside - I agree with you, a meeting is long overdue. We need answers on a lot of things, not least the free reign our former CEO seems to have had, the treatment of players over the last few years... (for me, I still can't get past how a so-called respected surgeon allegedly tells a player to walk-off an ACL injury), who was supposed to be deploying some governance, who was responsible for communications and why this was non-existent. and who feels they are morally in a position where they can argue their position is not untenable after the last few years of mismanagement.

Scotty HT: 0-0 FT: 2-0 1st Scorer ICT: Mckay 1st Scorer Opp: Alston Crowd: 1712 CDN Girl HT: 1-0 FT: 1-0 1st Scorer ICT: MacLeod 1st Scorer Opp: Tomlinson Crowd: 1655 SOS HT: 2-0 FT: 2-1 1st Scorer ICT: Brooks 1st Scorer Opp: Steele Crowd: 1801

Scotty: Kelty @ 1.95 CDN Girl: Cove @ 2.3 SOS: QOS @ 1.91

Regardless of the circumstances, and yours or my opinion about his criminal record, its a simple fact that he is known further afield than Scotland based on his footballing record at Rangers and more especially his playing record with Everton. His on-field hardman reputation (and it has to be said his off-field 'detention' of burglars more so than the assault victims) mean people know who he is. Heading slightly off topic here but .... I prefer to focus on the Scottish Cup exploits, rather than current situation when talking up the club to people here, and if it is TFC supporters, then I talk about being proud to have been present at the birth of two football clubs, not just one. (ICT in 1994 and TFC in 2006 where I committed to season tickets before we had a team, a manager, or a stadium) and the parallels between the two clubs despite the massive gulf in financial stability. The thing that resonated with someone over here that I spoke with to try and help the club back in 2019 was our youth development, with me citing Ryan Christie as a shining example, and later on, mentioning his dad's commitment to the youth setup and as someone who told me once how he fondly remembers a youth trip to Toronto which I think would either have been street league or Caley (many years ago). This got the guy interested, but of course it came to nothing in the end as it wasn't followed up.

I get that Ferguson is trying, and there is likely more going on behind the scenes than we know, and that brings added pressure all around. I also get it that we cannot afford to sack him as his buddy likely gave him a contract that made it too costly to do so. I do also appreciate the fact that he took a pay cut after relegation, so his wages are not necessarily the millstone around our neck that they used to be. I want to like him, I want him to succeed. I don't care if he was associated with Rangers, Queens Park Rangers or the Texas Rangers, it is good for our club to have a known name at the helm. With apologies to our other managers, most of whom have been far more successful, he is second only to Terry Butcher when it comes to name recognition outside of the small bubble we operate in. When I am trying to explain ICTFC to someone over here who only knows the names of the big two and never watches SPFL football, the bullet points tend to be Scottish Cup Finals in 2015 and 2023 as well as SuperCaleyGoBallistic and then Butcher as our manager and more latterly (despite performance in the job) DF. By the end of that part of the conversation, there is usually some recognition, and then the sad story starts about how things have gone in the last 5 years. In my opinion, DF has to start listening to people and adapt things. He has a hard task, with scant resources, but maybe he needs to quietly chat to a few folk around the game who have been in the lower leagues, who have navigated clubs out of those leagues, and learn from them. Doesn't Pele still come to our games? Perhaps he can be humble and pick his brain? Doesn't have to be a media event, just do it on the QT and try to see results improve. If not, then surely there are those around the game who he trusts and looks up to and whose advice he would take? If he can do that, and turn things around, then he can turn the support around too. If he can't, then he will never win the fans over. The other thing DF has to do in my opinion is to both acknowledge, and apologise for the treatment given out to Doran, Ridgers, Esson, and others who were treated shabbily by the club in more recent times. It doesn't need to be effusive, or again a media event, but some sort of acknowledgement that mistakes were made, communication was p1sh, and they apologise and will learn from it. It may ultimately not have been (entirely) his fault, but as the manager and leader of the footballing side it is his responsibility to both make hard decisions about the squad (and to communicate those decisions), and also to stick up for them if an errant executive tries to shaft them. Sounds like he did neither this summer. We can get behind the club with AS at the helm on the business side, and we would like to get behind Dunc on the footballing side, but things have to improve.

Scotty HT: 0-0 FT: 2-0 1st Scorer ICT: Mckay 1st Scorer Opp: Megginson Crowd: 1746 CDN Girl HT: 1-0 FT: 3-1 1st Scorer ICT: Brooks 1st Scorer Opp: Fyvie Crowd:1711 SOS HT: 1-1 FT: 2-1 1st Scorer ICT: Nolan 1st Scorer Opp: Yule Crowd: 1955

Scotty: Arbroath @ 2.00 CDN Girl: Alloa @ 1.73 SOS: Forfar @ 2.1

There is also no small matter of the ongoing demand for money from the aforementioned former CEO whose shadow hangs around like a bad smell, and some comments from AS that show we are not out of the woods yet. Some may be reticent to part with cash in those circumstances if they think it will end up in the wrong pockets or in administrators' hands instead of the club. Its a catch-22 situation, and I have to admit that the same thought crossed my mind as I contacted Keith to ask him to bill us for the player sponsorships. I do have to admit that I did prefer to have a beer or several at the Innes before the game, avoided the sports bar, and just got to my seat at around 2:59pm. I tended to avoid hospitality because it meant an early start at the stadium, a suit and tie job (at that time), and then a long night ..... Wonder if there are any innovative ideas on what might be more popular? I know at TFC they have a buffet type arrangement for what they call the "tunnel club" and fans who have bought premium season tickets that include this option for the entire season, can simply float from table to table like you might in a pub and go grab food (or drink) as needed. No formal sit down or three course meals. I can't afford that personally, so for the plebs like me, there is the option of a beer garden that opens early and serves bottled beer at normal prices (as opposed to stadium prices) in an effort to get more people to the stadium early. There are random prizes or swag to be grabbed to entice people to attend. Perhaps we can take the grains of ideas like this or others and see how they might be scaled to ICT size?

not heard anything - good or bad ...

Well, we got there folks. Many thanks for this. We will now sponsor the home top for two players. I will let Keith know to invoice us and get it paid. I will leave the sponsorship opportunity open just in case we do get any stragglers wanting to add more to the campaign, and if we do get any more then this will be used to perhaps sponsor some lesser (cheaper) items from the players who still have slots available. We will use the poll results to decide who if we get to that point.

not sure if he counts as he was just a youth player for us... but Stuart Armstrong got his first for Vancouver at the weekend.

Scotty HT: 0-0 FT: 0-1 1st Scorer ICT: Mckay 1st Scorer Opp: Scougall Crowd: 845 CDN Girl HT: 1-0 FT: 1-1 1st Scorer ICT: Brooks 1st Scorer Opp: Sammon Crowd: 717 SOS HT: 1-1 FT: 1-2 1st Scorer ICT: Mackinnon 1st Scorer Opp: Cawley Crowd: 799

Scotty: Livi @ 1.62 CDN Girl: Ayr @ 1.83 SOS: QOS @ 1.91

May not reach its target quite as quickly as Aaron Doran's!! This conversation does however highlight one area where our former CEO has succeeded, and on that front, he has succeeded beyond his wildest dreams. He has managed to get an entire city, not just the supporters of the club, to revile and despise him and that loathing also spreads nationally and internationally. I guess Dundee and Hearts were just the warmup. Personally, anytime I hear the name, I seethe more than Derek Adams on a bad day. I guess he is trying to get every penny he can out of us, because unless it is Ketan, then a quick google of his name would bring up so many red flags that any employer in almost any field should quickly say no thanks. Or will he use that £140K to fund his lawyers to get google to remove him from search results. I really hope AS finds something in the forensic audit to wipe the smirk of his face, or maybe we can charge him a £20 admin fee for each of the 7000 unread emails? and, it has to be said, who in the **** accepted a 12 month notice period from anyone. If you would not put someone on 12-month notice, then you don't accept a resignation with that term. We tossed players aside like rubbish, yet the one position that should have been put in the dustbin is lining up for a golden handshake. feckin' unbelievable.

it is just revenue in the same way as merch or ticket sales. Not specifically going to the actual player. We held our nose for a few years and continued it while the former CEO was there, but we suspended it last year (like a lot of people) as we simply could not justify it any more. If this is a subject for wider discussion I would suggest it gets its own thread. As noted above, this thread will be tidied up (and closed) as its really only for getting the names and not a discussion thread per-se.

We did have someone say they would like a digital subscription to try and win a physical shirt from one of the sponsored players ... I think they called it a phygital experience ... but the money never materialised when the checkout button appeared. However, your contribution was received so another step closer

fixed it for ya.

52 slots now .. thanks to the people who took additional spots. 8 to go.

Almost there ... 12 more slots available.