Scotty

We have now created the 2013/14 Prediction League and added the first 5 weeks. It is open to all and the format is simple. Predict scorelines for each SPL match and win some points ... Its free, a bit of fun, and there is no prize, The winner at end of season simply gets bragging rights !!! To join 1. Existing Users from last season ... login to the PL and then go to your profile and where it shows 'joined leagues' put a checkmark in the box next to the 2013/14 competition. 2. New Users - create a PL account (separate to your CTO login) and fill out the relevant info. You will join the 2013/14 league League will be administered by myself and/or Gringo and we will try (where possible) to have prediction games up a week or more in advance .....

Well done to St Johnstone ..... our turn this time next year (I hope)

OK - now that the thread confusion is out of the way, here is the inevitable (friendly) warning for this thread ...... This is the same as any other discussion thread over the years where legal proceedings were pending. Those who have been around more than 5 minutes know we need to tread a little carefully. For that reason I would ask for a common sense approach to your posts in this thread. Last thing we want to do is close the thread or exclude posters from it or the site. It is fine to discuss the topic in general, or to have and express a personal opinion ... the news is in the public domain after all. However as legal proceedings appear to be pending, and there is mention of a report to the PF then we are extremely restricted in what can be published until the conclusion of this matter. This is not our choice, it is the law, and to protect the site, this thread will be closely monitored. I am no lawyer, but from past experience, I know we cannot discuss specifics of the case, we cannot name names (other than Foran) until or unless those names are already in the public domain, and we cannot use statements like "I heard ..." and then go on to print details that may be the presented in court. etc. that leaves both the poster and the site wide open for legal troubles none of us need. As with previous threads of this nature, to fulfil our legal obligations (which is to remove any offending posts as quickly as is reasonable and practical to do so), it will be a zero tolerance policy to anything we feel crosses the line - or where our resident lawyer indicates it may do - and those posts will be removed from view. If you have a post removed and you don't hear from us, it is likely we are being careful or your post was out of context when something else was removed. No warning or ban would have been issued in that case. In that instance, feel free to PM one of the mods or myself to find out the circumstances if you feel the need. If you do have a post removed and you do hear from us, the details will be in the PM you receive !!!

like it. have it. wore it to the last TFC home game as per my new avatar ......

Looking to see if any of our members have coding skills that extend beyond the most simple stuff. We are looking for someone who can take existing php files, do some specific customisations that will pull additional data from one of our MySQL databases, and display it in a friendly format on site. We would also be looking to optimise the existing code which was written for PHP4 so that it does not give us errors in PHP5 when certain characters are used. If you have the capability and are interested, let me know via PM and I can give more details. Depending on the volume of work, there may also be some remuneration involved.

Expectation? Top Six ........ but as IHE noted, there are several 'SMART' goals to be achieved. Winning the SPL is a 'pipedream' so not one of the 'smart' goals. 1. Avoid relegation (for obvious reasons) 2. Finish above County (shadows and all that) 3. Top Six (better gates for last 5 games) 4. Good run in SFA and/or League Cup (potential UEFA qualification and additional non-budgeted money in coffers) 5. Top 3 (European qualification - the logical next step in ICT's development) 6. Top 2 (mucho dinero as league payment + European qualification) If we can achieve the first 3 I will be reasonably happy. 1-4 would be very good, and if we get to 5 or 6 then Terry has to get the keys to the city !

Didnt go to Columbus, but was in Montreal this year ... thousands made a weekend of it but the club also put on 10 supporters buses, so I made the trip on one of them and went there and back in one long day.

I see what you mean, 22nd March should say home v Partick. Thanks for pointing it out guys. human error in data entry ! fixture list amended !

Maybe Marsella is scouting himself .......

click site rules at bottom of page to see, and to answer the other question, yes.

everyone does ... you can see your own warning level, but not anyone else's .... if it says zero, then you are a good boy (for now)

This got me thinking ..... We get asked this every so often, and there are a couple of things we could do to facilitate this kind of thing first - I have re-installed an old feature we used to have called 'member map' ..... you can find it in the features menu - add your location and maybe over time, other users in nearby locations will add theirs so you will know if someone lives nearby. It is a free add-on for the board so no big deal. The second option is actually a paid option (costs about $50 to purchase) but allows for the creation of various groups .... be that supporter groups in different areas, or maybe other groups we have but dont really realise such as Highland Marchers, Exiles or Ex- Pats, or even the younger lads in the North Stand ..... we are not going to purchase it if no-one would use it, but would give it consideration of there is a niche for it here ..... details of the app are here: http://community.invisionpower.com/files/file/4226-rsyvarth-social-groups/

Ach Scarlet, come back to me when your team has the 2 highest official travelling support records in MLS !!!! 5000 fans --> 338 miles to Montreal this year 2500 fans --> 427 miles, across the border to Columbus, Ohio in 2009

and now ICT are a fine, family orientated, straight laced, inoffensive football club that has become a feckin institution in just 18 seasons .....

As a former Caley fan, I would have to respectfully disagree !!! to an extent ..... We will never know for sure, and to me it is a largely irrelevant scenario as we are now ICT, but my belief is that if Caley had applied individually, we may not have got in initially, and may have had to wait until about the time Gretna got in. Even if we had got in on our own in '94, I think the progress would have been quite a bit slower, and at best we would have emulated County rather than ICT in taking a longer time to reach the top league. I have no doubt that Caley would have reached the SPL, but we would have spent a few additional seasons bouncing around the 1st and/or 2nd divisions, and staying in the top flight may or may not have been sustainable. My reasoning? simple. The early years of ICT is peppered with people from both the former Caley and Thistle camps (be it supporters or officials) who have business know-how & football savvy that helped us develop, and very importantly, some folk with extremely good contacts with the old boys network that was deciding who would get in ..... for example ... we should not underestimate the influence of the likes of former Thistle Chairman Jock MacDonald in getting us in in the first place, or David Sutherland who was also a Thistle supporter in steadying our finances, ploughing money in for stands, and generally putting practices in place that sees us now crowing about how efficiently run we are in another thread ...... without them we may have been successful, or we may not .... we will never know for sure.

Signing ban was imposed a few days ago when they failed to pay their players. http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/22909435

Photos from that game ......

From the SFA registration rules ..... 12.2.7 A Player may be registered on a Recreational Form for more than one Club subject always to the rules and regulations of the relevant Affiliated National Association where applicable and these Procedures. 12.3 Eligibility to Play 12.3.1 A Player who is registered upon a Recreational Form may only play for the Club(s) for which he is registered provided that to do so is not contrary to these Procedures and the rules and regulations, as appropriate of the Scottish Amateur FA, Scottish Welfare FA, Scottish Women’s FA, Scottish Youth FA and Scottish Schools FA. Used to get this a few times back in my days on the committee of the IDAFA .... we had professional or semi-pros coming back to the amateurs after retiring from HFL or SFL and that was a paperwork minefield to get them classified as an amateur again. We also had players who - quite legally - played for more than one team in different associations, and I know some associations used to also allow 'trialists' who could play up to 3 games. Not sure how it all lies now though as the IDAFA broke away from its affiliation to the SAFA years ago when the SAFA were pushing through a raft of unpopular measures, and as far as I know it is now (or was) a directly registered association with the SFA .... bottom line, cant see the player doing anything too dodgy as he would presumably have been on pro or semi-pro forms at ICT, and would then have to jump through hoops to register as an amateur to play in welfare/amateur, and then go back and sign semi-pro forms (or non-recreational I think they are called now) to play in anything from North Caledonian League or above.... and you cant just switch every few months!

League rules limit the amount of "non-domestic" players though Scarlet .... MLS has a total of 152 'international' slots available for the entire league which are spread amongst the 19 teams. For MLS teams in the USA, an international slot is used for any player (including a designated player) who is not an American citizen, a holder of a green card, or who does not have special status (eg. is a refugee or has been previously granted asylum). In Canada, its pretty much the same with the exception that Americans are also classed as domestics and Canadian MLS teams must have a minimum of 3 Canadians in their squad. As each squad has a maximum of 30 players, then that is 152 out of the 570 squad places league wide that are available to non-domestics. Each team started with a 8 slots, but teams can trade the slots as part of normal transfers/trades so Vancouver right now has 11 slots whereas Toronto has 9 ..... its somewhat similar to the old UEFA 3 foreigner rule that disappeared when it was deemed unlawful by the EU.

I never actually knew that! It puts some things into perspective for me now, in a different context. Helpful to know. Not strictly true ..... Northern Ireland has had no officially sanctioned flag since 1972, and since 1973 only the union flag (union jack) is permitted, by law, to be flown on (national) government buildings. (see attachment) The Ulster banner was the official flag from 53-72 but ceased to have status when parliament was dissolved in 72. While it is true to say that it is contentious, given that it is still used by loyalists and flown above some local authority buildings where the council is controlled by loyalists (as the flag law does not cover local councils), it is also used to represent Northern Ireland in sports such as football (look at fifa.com) and the commonwealth games where a distinction between home nations is required. The St Patrick's Saltire has no official status although it is the Northern Irish component of the Union Flag. It tends to be viewed as a cross-community symbol with less political baggage than the Ulster Banner, Irish Tricolour, or Union Flags. It is one of two flags authorised by the Church of Ireland to be flown on buildings, and also forms the basis of the Northern Irish police badge. It is also approved for use in Orange Walks !!!! snpc-04474.pdf

They'd hammer them on FIFA13 !!!!!

I doubt this helped:http://www.inverness-courier.co.uk/News/Ex-ICT-player-accused-of-street-attack-in-Aberdeen-9785.htm In the interests of fairness, if we are going to dredge up the criminal charges he faced, it should also be pointed out that both he and his brother were cleared of those charges: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-highlands-islands-10938924 Apparently a lot of the disdain for him comes from the attitude he had at ICT, and may still have at RCFC. Do a search here on CTO and you will find plenty comments from his time at ICT, but for more recent opinion, I give you a County fan posting on the Oldham website before his move there fell through .... http://www.owtb.co.uk/index.php?showtopic=42686&st=80#entry635679

The related link on the page above is funny reading too ... "The wit and wisdom of Kilmarnock boss, Kenny Shiels" : http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/kilmarnock-manager-kenny-shiels-most-1942939 My favourite is: "Celtic make a song and dance about everything, don’t they? Paranoid FC." to which Neil Lennon replied "he’s the David Brent of Scottish football" :lol:

I like.

Yup, thats the one for me too ... especially as the Seethe makes a cameo appearance