Charles Bannerman

So who does then and under what terms?

I was not seeking to make any value judgement in what I wrote. The purpose was merely to give a factual account of Tullochs' financial involvement in ICT since the initial link was made.

So is it widely accepted now that Tulloch own the stadium? Weren't we told that it was transferred to a charitable trust? Let's go back to 2000 when ICT was ?2M in debt and in significant danger of administration or worse. A lot of measures were put in place over the next couple of years, including the ICT Charitable Trust which bought the Stadium and took over the balance of the lease from Highland Council, thus effectively wiping out the potentially fatal debt. The setting up of the Trust was a long and complicated affair, with strict criteria to qualify for charitable status (which included the legal requirement, as a quid pro quo, to assist ALL sport and not just football although I'm not aware of too much of that having happened.) The Trustees were, and as far as I am aware still are, David Sutherland, David Stewart MP and now MSP and ex Provost Allan Sellar. There had always been some uncertainty as to how ?2M of debt was simply "spirited away" but it has become clear that the Bank of Scotland, with which David Sutherland has strong ties, played the central role in taking up this debt, with Tullochs guaranteeing it in some shape or form. As a result, Tullochs play a very influential role in the basic stadium ownership and, to face reality, they were the only game in town when ICT was a complete basket case and would probably have gone to the wall without them. The second component of the Tullochs involvement was the ?500,000 or thereby of equity they took up in around 2002 which made a huge difference to ongoing club funding, probably at the same time making it financially feasible to win the First Division and to go into the SPL (and carry the Pittodrie costs for 6 months). In return for this, Tullochs got the right for 5 years to nominate 3 of the 6 directors, including the Chairman, and since he also had a casting vote, this was effectively control of the board. This arrangement expired in 2007 but David Sutherland, although not a director, is still very infuential. It should perhaps also be emphasised that Tullochs have never allowed their shareholding to exceed around 42% and have never sought to have a controlling interest. Part 3 relates to the North and South stands which were built at great speed by Tullochs in the winter of 2004-05. What is more important than the fact that they built the stands is that they also played an instrumental part in funding them, in association with Highland Council. The quid pro quo for that was that the premises should be called the Tulloch Caledonian Stadium. So Tullochs' contribution can be summarised under three headings - avoidance of bankruptcy, funding on the eve of SPL membership, provision of facilities to bring SPL football to Inverness. These are the financial facts although I have noticed that interpretation of them on this board has tended to depend on the phase of the cycle of popularity that David Sutherland is deemed to be on at any particular time.

Is that the fat cats? You mean the people who subsidise the price of your ticket?

As he is a lifelong dyed in the wool Clacher, I would doubt if this would be a job which would appeal to Billy.

That would be Billy Nelson. He still does the Clach PA and often plays tracks from his own CD, including the legendary "Westering Home To The Ferry."

That was the original request from Inverness District Council when they granted the 99 year lease of the site but it was only a request and the term "Caledonian Stadium" was needed instead as a means of appeasing the Caley side at a time when the whole merger plan looked likely to hit the buffers.

There was never a thistle in the name. I dont even think calling it Caledonian Stadium had anything to do with that club but more with Caledon that ancient name for these lands and the fact we sit pretty much at that end of the Caledonian Canal. The title "Caledonian Stadium" is a legacy of the torrid time the merger went through late 1993 and early 1994 when it came within a hairsbreadth of extinction and with it Inverness's prospects of Scottish League football. There were protracted negotiations, which also involved INE and on which the future of the club depended, and these came up with the vital agreement that the club would be called Caledonian Thistle and the stadium would be called the Caledonian Stadium. There was never any "Thistle" part of the stadium name but the deal as a whole was designed to reflect the fact that Caley were the bigger partners. There were eventually other features as well such as the notorious inaugural "predominantly blue" strip but what finally came out in the wash, especially after the black and red was added to the strip in 1995, probably reflected quite fairly the unequal nature of the merger. I often think the Jaggies got a bit of a bonus out of it though since "their" bit of the stadium was named the Kingsmills Suite. As it's turned out this is one of the most heavily used and therefore best known parts of the Caledonian Stadium.

Apologies, I didn't realise that this was an older thread. It's not like people on here to complain, is it?

Not one of your better attempts at stirring up trouble or discontent. The attendance, which was officially declared by ICT early in the second half, was 4005.

Not the first reaction to that particular experience which would actually have occurred to me.

The only part of that description I match is the "left footed" bit.

According to my colleague Jim Spence at the BBC in Dundee, much of the snow there has gone and Tannadice is expected to be absolutely fine, if a bit heavy. Can I just take this opportunity to advise that there WILL be live commentary from Scott Davie and Brian Irvine on Radio Scotland 92-95FM in the Highlands and Islands area. On this occasion the rugby is on 810 medium wave and not on FM, thus freeing the FM frequencies which can be opted out to give commentaries on more than one SPL match. This commentary is also online (I don't know if there are any restrictions for the diasporate) and the Open All Mics option is on 103.5-105FM where the reporter at Tannadice will be Jim Spence, Robbo being at Tynecastle.

Birdog... absolutely no offence taken at all! At the time I had the same John F Kennedy Moment as many other people from Inverness who could not be there. (In other words when Paul Sheerin took the penalty I remember stopping my car in the middle of Culduthel Road to catch the commentary.) Indeed far from underestimating the achievement, I look on it as a major springboard for the series of momentous achievements which led to entry to the SPL in 2004, and as such part of a bigger picture. For various reasons I was unable to be there (just as I had to miss Thistle's 3-0 defeat of Kilmarnock and Caley's penalties win over Airdrie). However a colleague on the Glasgow newsdesk happened to know I was still in Inverness that night and I was duly dispatched to the Phoenix to record one of the most memorable vox pops I have ever done. However, I did happen to be there on the Saturday and had a press pass so got into the ground and stood on the pitch watching the "fluttering guttering". That, as it happened, gave me the opportunity to do a pile of interviews with players/ management/ directors which led to a huge PARADISE LOST back page headline in the Courier. I also managed to eat my fair share of the 20,000 spare pies Celtic needed to get rid of... and Inverurie thought they had a problem with 2000!

I could take elaborate exception to the first few words of the above quote but I will avoid the temptation. I'm actually rather more concerned about the danger of Caley Thistle being remembered as a one result club due to an over emphasis of that one match. I'm also a bit concerned that the real reason for the years of attention it has received from outwith ICT at any rate has more to do with the fact that it was Celtic that ICT beat than with the intrinsic value of the performance. In other words I do tend to write off a certain percentage of the hype about this which originates externally as more of a statement about Celtic and somewhat patronising towards ICT. As for the "few pre merger rebels" I really don't think there have ever been enough of them to have had any significantly adverse effect and if I wasn't worried about them in the mid 90s I certainly am not now. My view was that the omelette in question was never going to be made without breaking a few eggs and that the benefit gained from what has happened has outweighed the loss by many orders of magnitude. Like Scotty I respect the fact that they are entitled to their view but am at the same time thankful that they did not succeed in preventing what has happened and that they are now no more than a footnote in history and really a product of their own delusions of their own significance

Mmm.. that's maybe another over rated myth that's even more over used and overstated than Wembley 1966 and Archie Gemmill's goal. Which telephone box are they holding this year's AGM in?

Great though it was at the time, is 8.2.00. not in danger of becoming as bad as Wembley 1966 and Archie Gemmill's goal?

I think it has. Sounds to me remarkably like Jud, Jasper, Gordy Bus and Freddie Driver.

My God! That man Thomson is older than I am and his memory is still perfect! Well... almost.... I have a feeling that Sergei's last game was a 1 all draw at home to Queens Park although I believe he beat County on his penultimate appearance.... in fact was it not 3-0 which finally ended County's promotion hopes?

I can't quite agree with this since the SFL rearranging to 4 x 10 wasn't on the agenda in Feb 1991 and Leishman had been gone for a full year and a half by the time Baltacha was appointed by Caley. I do, however, think that the Baltacha appointment had a lot to do with the merger which by that time (June 93) had been launched as a project by INE and the SFL had decided to rearrange.

If that is the case then either his English has improved dramatically since 1995 or this is a reflection of the rather lower standards for entrance to teaching in England. In Scotland he would have to have a GTC approved teaching qualification which would have to include Higher English. IHE... agreed, it was a fact. The problem was that there was an element within the Thistle support which thought it should be a 50-50 merger and an element within the Caley support which thought it should be 100-0. The reality was somewhere in between and so it has transpired. Johnboy... "ICT - The Butcher Years?" You never know! Scotty.... I'm not sure it's possible to compare managers operating variously among the impoverished of the Third Division and the elite of the SPL, albeit with players at ?40 a week and up to ?1000 or so.

Kingsmills... I was expecting one former Jaggie or another to object to my comment about the smaller merger partner being "put in its (not unreasonable) place", but no one has bitten so far! If there had not been internal problems, I also wonder if he would have been appointed to Caley at all since his original appointment there was also a produce of the kind of mindset which created the internal problems as well. Scotty.... I think that maybe from the turn of 1995 - ie half way through the season - there had been a realisation that Sergei was not the man. Certainly I remember two very senior CT players telling me after the cup defeat by QoS in December that he was losing the dressing room. I therefore agree with you that Pele was probably on the radar from around mid season and I certainly remember hearing quite some time before the end of that first season that there was interest in him. However they were still so wrapped up in politics and the law (for instance the Thistle court case was reaching a head) that they must have been glad that, with relegation not an issue in D3, they didn't have to worry about disposing of the manager until the end of the season.

Sergei was a gentleman through and through and had an incredible playing pedigree but just didn't seem to make it as a manager and I note he hasn't done much (or indeed any) management since he left Inverness. I know that the players didn't like his management style very much since they were part timers and he tended to go on the full time model with a big touch of Soviet ruthlessness added in. I think Caley D's suggestion that he couldn't adapt to players of a lesser ability is also valid. There were language problems as well. Remember that his appointment to CT, and even to Caledonian before that, had significant political implications. I believe that Caledonian in 1993 wanted a high profile manager who would be an asset to them either in any bid to join the SFL on their own or in terms of getting their man into post if a merger ever took place - and so it transpired. When it came to appointing the first CT manager in February 1994, Henrik Madej, as the rather lower profile manager of the smaller merger partner which had been "put in its (not unreasonable) place" by its bigger colleague during the merger battle, never had any chance at all of getting that job. With regard to Sergei's departure, I am of the view that he WAS sacked. It was late April 1995 and Sergei was summoned to meet with Kenny Thomson and one or two others in Dougie McGilvray's office. They were intent that Sergei had to go but it was put to him that he would get a year's salary (?25K at the time) and the official story would be that Sergei wanted to get back to Perth to be with his family (his failure to relocate had been a significant issue) but the Board had asked him to stay on for the final two games of the season so he would leave then. There is no doubt that he was sacked but, given the recent political atmosphere, another controversy was the last thing they wanted so that was the way it was presented. By that time Pele was also well and truly on the radar, and the rest is history.

The only small problem was that all the bloodstained bandages I could see appeared to be white with simply a largeish circle of red at the front. They unfortunately looked a bit like the Rising Sun and might well therefore also have been taken as a tribute to Mr. Nakamura! I did mention the tribute to TB in my post match interview and he seemed to appreciate the recognition, although he did make the point that it's not perhaps a great fashion statement!

Johndo I am merely expanding on the general situation which is that there has always been a reluctance for players and probably managers as well to come up here. (There is of course the opposite problem which is the loss of local talent to the South. This is a significant problem, although not altogether universal since you get local stars like Davie Milroy and Billy Urquhart spending all or a great deal of their careers here while the likes of their Captain in the Inverness Royal Academy 1st XI deserted the Highlands, ultimately for one of the lesser regions of England, his talent therefore lost and unavailable to his native city. )