Scotty

Wednesday 11th July ....... Toronto FC -V- Vancouver already circled in the calendar !!!!!

If the game has yet to take place, and Rangers (or the administrators) cannot give assurances that the receipts for sales for this future fixture will be paid for then I say we should declare all tickets for the south stand void, reprint them on bright green paper (perhaps with white stripes) and sell them ourselves (or via the Portland Club) .... anyone turning up with original tickets gets turned away. simple. (in theory at least) the ticket money is not Rangers' money, it is ICT money which I think Rangers take a commission from for selling them, and which Rangers (and Celtic) requested to sell so they could control who got them amongst their support. If they are not going to pay for them, then the tickets are as good as frauds or forgeries and should be treated as such ....

Snake mountain seems oddly appropriate .......

Aberdeen score 92nd minute winner ... Hearts get a 95th minute penalty and score to equalise. ....

even weirder ...... Elgin beating Peterhead 4-0 ...... and Peterhead have scored 3 own goals ???????

County losing 1-2 so far, St Mirren down to 10 men though .... and if you view the SkySports livescore page, Grant Munro is still Golly in disguise, in an old ICT shirt ! (not to mention most of the rest coming up as playing for other teams or 'undefined' )

At a guess ... if they owe ICT money it will likely be for damages or ticket sales ... or both If seats are broken/ripped out or other damage done in the away end of a stadium, the home team routinely sends the visiting team a bill .... When it comes to ticket sales, quite often away tickets for an all ticket match are sold by the away team (eg. you had to buy your Celtic tickets for last weekend from ICT ... Pretty sure its the same when Rangers/Celtic come here and we send the tickets down the road.)

It is with extreme sadness that I post this thread to let everyone know of news that reached me a few minutes ago that a formerly prolific poster on the site passed away over the weekend from a heart attack. Gordon Urquhart, known as "GordyfromSneck" on here was in his fifties and most recently had been living in Zambia. He was also enrolled at UHI on a PG course in Interpretation and had assisted many of the museums in the Highlands. Seems like Gordy took his love of Caley Thistle with him to Zambia, where a blogger friend of his wrote this little bio below a poem he had submitted to the site .... "Gordon Urquhart is a Scoattish Heelander living in Zambia, where his short attention span attracts less attention. He likes making wee films about animals, portmanteau electronic music, his children, Inverness Caley Thistle, history and the bittersweet prospect of the death of capitalism. Though she gets irritated by his sarcasm, he loves his wife. He thinks he isn't nearly sarcastic enough." On a personal level, the news stunned me even more as I had been thinking of him just this morning after reading the "where are they now?" thread and noting that someone had mentioned Africa. I remember my last conversation with him, where he was trying to figure out how he could get radio coverage of ICT games from abroad and was picking my brains for the info. On behalf of the website, and from me personally, our thoughts, best wishes, and deepest condolences go out to his family, and to those who knew him well whether on here or in real life. As a mark of respect to Gordy, we shall be 'retiring' his username so no-one can use it in the future. RIP Gordy.

If they get punished like Livingston then nothing will happen. The SPL did not deduct any points from Livi, it was the SFL which added the punitive 'demotion' punishment after they were relegated from the SPL and when they could not guarantee to fulfill fixtures .... The SPL put rules in place after the Motherwell, Dundee and Livi administrations so that future teams going into administration were fined 10 points, hence the reason Gretna had that sanction placed on them, and like Livi, the punitive additional sanctions were only added after they had left the SPL through relegation and dropped into the SFL. If however, they get punished like Livingstone then malaria and dysentry may indeed be the end of them !!!

There's another reason they wont fall completely .... a "new" Rangers. ie. a new team taking over the registration of the other immediately becomes ineligible to play in Europe for three years ... Whilst some leagues, and even UEFA accept transfer of ownership, name and such like, the membership of UEFA is not transferable and the team gets classed as a new member. Under club licensing rules, you have to be a member for 3 years before becoming eligible for European competition.

ok, guys, pissing contest over (myself included). Lets agree one thing ... the SPL have, in the past made some decisions that could possibly be called "absurd" ... and if they need to again, they probably will. However, I tend to agree with the other posters who suggest this is all a matter of timing and strategy based on league position and cup status, and it will not come to a full closure or re-birth of the club. They (Rangers) will suffer nothing more than the now mandated 10 point penalty, and they will still finish second. They will pay off their creditors at a few pence in the pound, come out of administration before next season and still be eligible to play in Europe ......

no. this is John Good Man

OK. just did a bit more reading .... the "punishment" is now clearly defined in the SPL rulebook ..... -10 points for each "insolvency event" A6.8 Where a Club takes, suffers or is subject to an Insolvency Event that Club shall be deducted 10 points. Where the Insolvency Event occurs during the Season, the points deduction shall apply immediately. Where the Insolvency Event occurs during the Close Season the points deduction shall apply in respect of the immediately following Season, such that the Club starts that immediately following Season on minus 10points. A6.9 Where an Insolvency Event or in the event that such Insolvency Event is part of an Insolvency Process that process, continues and/or is subsisting for more than one Season then, for each such Season, during the whole or part of which such Insolvency Event or Insolvency Process is continuing and/or subsisting, the Club concerned shall be deducted 10 points or, as the case may be, shall start each such Season on minus 10 points. A6.10 In the event that a Club shall take, suffer or be subject to more than one Insolvency Event during any one Season and the immediately preceding Close Season, which, in the opinion of the Board, are not part of the same Insolvency Process, then that Club shall be deducted 10 points in respect of each such Insolvency Event or, as the case may be minus such number of points, as reflects the number of Insolvency Events which that Club takes, suffers or is subject to during that Season and the immediately preceding Close Season. these articles on the STV website also outline what happens in administration, and how a "phoenix" club can still play in the SPL. http://sport.stv.tv/...administration/ http://sport.stv.tv/...hoenix-company/

While I am in broad agreement with what you say Charles .... I do have to continue to nitpick on a couple of points .... You are going to a very large extreme in comparing my comment about lower policing costs being akin to wishing us back in the Highland League. I do not, and never have, wished us to be backward looking, and ICTFC being in the SPL and sustaining that for most of the last 8 years is, and continues to be a perpetual point of pride in my eyes. However ... for whatever reason, and we see many different ones trotted out here every time we play the OF, the simple fact is that many people just dont go to these fixtures. We havent sold out a game against either half of them since 2008 and i would guess (yes, guess, as I dont have the numbers) that two games against Ross County if they were to come up to the SPL, would actually generate more net profit than recent (league) encounters against the OF. I would also say your comments about Airdrie/Clydebank/Airdrie Utd, Dundee, Livi, and Gretna are somewhat of a smokescreen. Of all of these teams you mention, the only one to be sanctioned by the SPL was Gretna. they suffered a 10 point deduction and were relegated at the end of the season by virtue of being in 12th spot. What came after (demotion to D3) was an SFL decision not an SPL one. The same applies to Livi with their demotion and to Dundee with their 25 point penalty, as well as Airdrie-Clydebank Utd. If we are going to compare things, lets compare apples to apples (i hesitate to use the other half of the term and say oranges to oranges for obvious reasons). If Rangers go into administration, the SPL has already set a couple of precedents .... In the case of Motherwell, Dundee and Livingston, all of whom entered administration whilst members of the SPL, there was no action taken and it was not until two of them were relegated and became members of a different organisation, that punitive punishment was later added by the SFL. In the most recent case, Gretna, there was a 10 point SPL deduction and this is now the norm. What happened to them after that 10 point deductions is irrelevant as it was applied by a different organisation. At this stage, it is my opinion that Rangers will be deducted 10 points but they cannot and will not be thrown out of the SPL. If they do not finish in last place, they will also not be relegated, and given that even with 10 points deducted they will still be 2nd, then relegation is not going to happen, and therefore demotion to the bottom division of a league they are not a member of will not happen either. It will be interesting to see how the SPL handle it if it comes to winding up Rangers FC and then receive an application for FC Rangers or something similar to become a member of the SPL in their place ... There is currently no precedent for this as it has never happened in the SPL, but you can bet their last £ that the SPL will find a way to allow this within the rules, even if those rules have to be changed ...... As ICT fans, we really should not grumble or engage in hypocrisy at that either as we were also the beneficiaries of a couple of rule changes in the SPL that allowed us, and others who have and will come after us to get to the top flight. Hope your chicken wasnt too burned .....

whilst I agree with your notion that the OF have sucked in so much of the turnover, I would argue the opposite in terms of "severe" knock-on effect. In terms of finances, the SPL dish out cash disproportionately, with a heavy reliance on finishing position. From the SPL's own website you can get the general idea .... 1. All monies go into the pot .. commercial revenue, broadcasting revenue etc etc etc .... 2. From that pot, the SPL pay an amount to the SFL as well as a parachute payment to the most recently relegated clubs. 3. From whats left, every club gets a flat payment of 4% of the pot (48% total) 4. the remaining 52% gets paid out to clubs, but its somewhat skewed ..... Unless it has changed in recent seasons, the team in bottom spot gets 0.5%, 11th gets 1%, 10th gets 1.5% etc ... up to 4th spot which gets 4.5%. The team in 3rd gets 5.5% whilst the team in 2nd gets 11% and the champions get 13%. As we usually know who is going to be 1st and 2nd, that means the OF routinely gobble up 32% of all revenues ...... The SPL commercial guidelines for 2011-12 show far more than just TV sponsors ..... Clydesdale, Sky, ESPN, BBC, Sportfive, BBC Alba, STV, IMG, Bauer Radio, GMG Radio, Coca Cola, Thomas Cook, William Hill, Supponor, Mitre, Panini, Sporting ID, Electronic Arts, Sega ...... The TV rights deal with Sky/ESPN (and the worldwide deal with sportfive) does not end until the end of 2013/14 season unless terminated by the SPL as they have the option during 12/13 and 13/14. The Rangers "saga" will be resolved long before then ... and far from diminish the interest, it may focus more interest in seeing what happens !!! Deals ending this year (or negotiated on a year to year basis) are: BBC Audio, BBC Alba, Bauer Radio (Radio Clyde/MFR), GMG (Real Radio), Supponor (Digital Billboards), Whilst I do agree with you ... to an extent, I would counter that with asking how much money would ICT save from having to have less police, stewards or other overheads for 2 or 3 matches a year? .... Also, if County come up, then at least initially, I would imagine we would see 2 home games against them per season and those might actually have larger crowds ! I do agree with you Charles, but for the record, the ONLY club to have been sanctioned by the SPL was Gretna. Motherwell, Livi and Dundee all went into administration whilst members of the SPL and all escaped without punishment. Gretna were deducted 10 points. The other draconian punishments meted out to those clubs were issued by the SFL not the SPL. Seems my blog entry recalling a conversation with a Rangers supporting colleague may have been timely: Its not going to happen. A loophole will be found to keep them in the SPL and the whitewash, or bluewash, will make it seem all too logical !

After typing my Livi answer above, I quickly went to the SPL website to check the rules and articles of association, and as CaleyD says, technically, a 'new' Rangers would not be entitled to the SPL membership vacated by the 'old' Rangers but you can be damn sure that these rules would be twisted, modified or bent to the point of breaking, to make sure they were an SPL team. There are enough mentions of "SPL discretion" in there to make sure of that. Whatever happens, and however things unfold, I get the feeling we are going to see a lot of new precedents set !

We had this on another thread ... but Livi is irrelevant. The established penalty in the SPL has been either nothing (a la Motherwell and Dundee) or a 10 point deduction (like Gretna). Livi were relegated to D3 by the SFL and NOT by the SPL as were Gretna. Also think the SPL can pull a swift one as they dont have to insist a "new member" works there way up .... EDIT: There have been 4 SPL teams to go into administration. 1. Motherwell (April 2002 - April 2004). Sanction = NONE 2. Dundee (Nov 2003 - Aug 2004). Sanction = NONE 3. Livingston (Feb 2004 - May 2005). Sanction = NONE 4. Gretna (Mar 2008 - Aug 2008). Sanction = -10Pts Further punishments to Dundee, Livi and Gretna were meted out by the SFL and NOT by the SPL. In Dundee's case they got hit with that 25 point penalty for going into administration twice. In Livi and Gretna's cases, it was demotion to D3 because they could not guarantee to fulfil fixtures.

I see this as a potential plus point !!!! Celtic may indeed win the league for a few years, but eventually they too will have to cut their cloth to suit their environment and if that environment has a skint Rangers, and 40 other teams that aren't exactly awash with cash either, then Celtic will also start to spend less, and in the end make the SPL a more competitive product as the gulf between top two and the rest will get smaller !!! It will also make it a lot more likely that we can get some sensible reconstruction ideas on the table ...... With one of the big two "injured", they may be more amenable to ideas that will ensure self preservation rather than the current stance of doing whats best for the behemoths and f*** the rest. I wont go into my own take on the owner's reasons for administration, but suffice to say I have read several articles that would suggest the fate of Rangers is following a distinct pattern of other "struggling" businesses he has been involved in. They will either sink, or perhaps he will be the knight on a Whyte horse that does a McCann, restructures the club and leaves them in better shape whilst also making himself a boatload of cash .... I guess we can only watch and wonder ..... One thing however, is that he will get showered with most of the blame ... but like Mr McCann on the other side of the divide, he is only dealing with what the previous regime(s) have failed to deal with for years .... in both cases, they may be the catalyst for change, but neither was the cause of the problem in the first place.

The essence of getting a club song is that it should be simple, easy to learn for those who are too lazy or uninterested in learning a complicated song with new lyrics, and it should be one not used by anyone else ....... the biggest exceptions to those criteria being when bands have an affiliation to the club such as Hibs and the Proclaimers ..... "Bring it on Home" was fun at the time ... for about 5 minutes ... after that (and to this day) it became ultra cheesy. I did like Battlefield by Wolfstone as a potential candidate, but its instrumental, and could be argued that is a bit "shortbread tin" .... Caledonia would be good but I fear the lyrics might be a little complicated for some so wouldnt catch on. So that leaves us with something easy and cross generational, or a tie-in with an unaltered song from a band or artist ..... not an easy task. I am going to stick with "Happiness" for the easily altered song .... but I am going to throw another song into the mix that gave me goosebumps when we sung it .... "Why does it always rain on me" by Travis was belted out by a large contingent of the away supporters who had just watched ICT put Hearts out of the Cup at Tynecastle, and despite the miserable weather, and what might have been a bit of a pisstake by the PA guy at the ground, it was embraced by the ICT fans and we gave it laldy. It was just one of those moments .... those who were there will know what I mean. Dont think Travis have any ICT affiliation, but I always think of that day anytime the song comes on the radio or on my ipod.

Reminds me too much of the old Toronto FC song for a certain rangers player called Edu .......

Did you listen to the game ??? Celtic helped by the ref ? What absolute nonsense. The ref was terrible for both sides !

You think ? sounds like the sending off was a bit soft .... Hayes got back up immediately and got on with it .... not trying to get the player sent off, but the ref made yet another strange decision .... shame we could do nothing from the free kick !

Team. Esson, Hayes, Tansey, Foran, Ross, Sutherland, Shinnie, Gillet, Williams, Gnakpa, Meekings Subs. Tuffey, Piermayr, Tokely, Jones, Proctor, Morrison, Winnall

<table width="80%" border="0" align="center"> <tr> <td> <table width="100%" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" bgcolor="#000033"> <tr> <td rowspan="3" width="55" scope="col"><div align="left"><img src="http://caleythistleonline.com/media/images/misc/ball_icon.png"'>http://caleythistleonline.com/media/images/misc/ball_icon.png" alt="ball" longdesc="ball icon"></div></td> <td><div align="center"> <h2><font color="#FFFFFF">THE AWAY-DAY THREAD</font></h2> <h5><font color="#FFFFFF">Ticketing, Travel and Other Info</font></h5> </div> </td> <td rowspan="3" width="55" scope="col"><div align="right"><img src="http://caleythistleonline.com/media/images/misc/ball_icon.png"'>http://caleythistleonline.com/media/images/misc/ball_icon.png" alt="ball" longdesc="ball icon"></div></td> </tr> <tr> <td><div align="center"><font color="#FFFFFF">Dunfermline -V- Inverness CT</font></div></td> </tr> <tr> <td><div align="center"><font color="#FFFFFF">18th February : 3:00PM East End Park, Dunfermline </font></div> </td> </tr> </table> <table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0"> <tr bgcolor="#0000CC"> <td scope="col"><div align="center" style="vertical-align:middle"><img src="http://caleythistleonline.com/media/images/misc/ticket.jpg"'>http://caleythistleonline.com/media/images/misc/ticket.jpg" alt="ff" align="right" longdesc="ticket"> <font color="#FFFFFF" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" style="vertical-align:top"><strong><img src="http://caleythistleonline.com/media/images/misc/ticket.jpg"'>http://caleythistleonline.com/media/images/misc/ticket.jpg" alt="ie" align="left" longdesc="ticket">Official Ticketing Info</strong></font> </div></td> </tr> <tr bgcolor="#F2F2F2"> <td valign="top"><p align="center"> <strong>Adult:</strong> ?? <strong>Concessions: </strong> ?? <strong>U-16: </strong> ?? <strong>Tickets: </strong>Pay at Gate </p> </td> </tr> </table> <table width="100%" border="0"> <tr bgcolor="#990000"> <td colspan="2" scope="col"><div align="center" style="vertical-align:middle"> <img src="http://caleythistleonline.com/media/images/misc/bus-r.jpg" alt="bus" align="left" longdesc="bus"> <img src="http://caleythistleonline.com/media/images/misc/bus-l.jpg"'>http://caleythistleonline.com/media/images/misc/bus-l.jpg" alt="bus" align="right" longdesc="bus"> <font color="#FFFFFF" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><strong>Supporters' Buses</strong></font> </div></td> </tr> <tr> <td scope="col"><div align="center"><strong>Supporters Club Bus </strong> <a href="http://caleythistleonline.com/supporters-club" target="_blank">http://caleythistleonline.com/supporters-club</a> </div></td> <td scope="col"><div align="center"><strong>"Official" Travel Club </strong> <a href="http://www.ictst.co.uk" title="External link" target="_blank" rel="nofollow external">http://www.ictst.co.uk</a></div></td> </tr> <tr> <td colspan="2" valign="top" bgcolor="#CCCCCC" scope="col"><div align="center"><strong>CONTACT</strong></div></td> </tr> <tr> <td valign="top" scope="col"><strong>Booking:</strong> 07519 763507</td> <td valign="top" scope="col"><strong>Booking:</strong> 07951 309504</td> </tr> <tr> <td valign="top" scope="col"><strong>Questions: </strong>PM Username "<strong>LIZI</strong>" with any queries</td> <td valign="top" scope="col"><strong>Questions: </strong>PM Username "<strong>CALEYD</strong>" with any queries</td> </tr> <tr> <td valign="top" scope="col"><strong>Email:</strong> [email protected]</td> <td valign="top" scope="col"><strong>Email: </strong>[email protected]</td> </tr> <tr> <td valign="top" scope="col"><strong>Other: </strong>---</td> <td valign="top" scope="col"><strong>Other: </strong>Seats can be booked in person at Club Shop</td> </tr> <tr> <td colspan="2" valign="top" bgcolor="#CCCCCC" scope="col"><div align="center"><strong>MATCHDAY</strong></div></td> </tr> <tr> <td valign="top" scope="col"><strong>Leaves:</strong> TCS @ 10:00am</td> <td valign="top" scope="col"><strong>Leaves: </strong>ICT Social Club (Greig St) @ 09:45am </td> </tr> <tr> <td valign="top" scope="col">&nbsp;</td> <td valign="top" scope="col"><strong>Leaves: </strong>TCS @ 10:00am </td> </tr> <tr> <td valign="top" scope="col"><strong>Stops en-Route:</strong> Yes - Perth </td> <td valign="top" scope="col"><strong>Stops en-Route:</strong> Short Comfort Stop Only</td> </tr> <tr> <td valign="top" scope="col"><strong>Arrives at match:</strong> in plenty time before KO</td> <td valign="top" scope="col"><strong>Arrives at match:</strong> in plenty time before KO</td> </tr> <tr> <td valign="top" scope="col"><strong>Leave Match:</strong> ASAP after final whistle</td> <td valign="top" scope="col"><strong>Leaves after match: </strong>ASAP after final whistle</td> </tr> <tr> <td valign="top" scope="col"><strong>Stops en-Route:</strong>Yes - Perth</td> <td valign="top" scope="col"><strong>Stops en-Route: </strong>Short Comfort Stop Only</td> </tr> <tr> <td valign="top" scope="col"><strong>Arrive home:</strong> Around 9:30pm (traffic permitting)</td> <td valign="top" scope="col"><strong>Arrive home:</strong> Around 9:30pm (traffic permitting)</td> </tr> <tr> <td valign="top" scope="col"><strong>Drop-Off points:</strong> Drakies, Kingsmills, Town Centre, TCS</td> <td valign="top" scope="col"><strong>Drop-Off points: </strong>TCS & Social Club.</td> </tr> <tr> <td valign="top" scope="col"><strong>Pickup/Dropoff en-Route:</strong> By arrangement</td> <td valign="top" scope="col"><strong>Pickup/Dropoff en-Route:</strong> By arrangement</td> </tr> <tr> <td colspan="2" valign="top" bgcolor="#CCCCCC" scope="col"><div align="center"><strong>COSTS</strong></div></td> </tr> <tr> <td width="50%" valign="top" scope="col"><p>?12 (members only) </p> </td> <td width="50%" valign="top" scope="col"><p>?13 (All : members or non-members)) </p> </td> </tr> <tr> <td valign="top" scope="col"><p>NOTES:</p> <ul> <li>Supporters Club membership is required. </li> <li>Can be purchased beforehand or on the bus on the day. </li> <li>Membership costs ?5 for adult, ?3 for Concessions (juniors, seniors, students) and is valid for whole season. </li> </ul></td> <td valign="top" scope="col"><p>NOTES:</p> <ul> <li>Membership is not required to travel on the bus, but Trust members do receive a discount.</li> <li>Joining info here: <a href="http://ictsupporterstrust.co.uk/join" target="_blank">http://ictsupporterstrust.co.uk/join</a></li> <li>Membership costs ?10 for Adult, ?5 for Junior and is valid for a year. </li> </ul></td> </tr> </table> <table width="100%" border="0" > <tr bgcolor="#003300"> <td valign="middle" scope="col"><div align="center" style="vertical-align:middle"> <img src="http://caleythistleonline.com/media/images/misc/train.jpg" alt="train" align="left" longdesc="ticket"> <img src="http://caleythistleonline.com/media/images/misc/bus-l.jpg"'>http://caleythistleonline.com/media/images/misc/bus-l.jpg" alt="bus" align="right" longdesc="ticket"> <font color="#FFFFFF" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><strong>Travel Offers</strong></font> </div></td> </tr> <tr> <td>Not everyone will use the Supporters Club or Travel Buses as not everyone comes from Inverness area .... please share any travel offers (bus/rail etc) you find with other site users and we will highlight them here .... </td> </tr> </table> </td> </tr> </table>