Charles Bannerman

IHE... this was RADIO... the medium for which you have a perfect body! It went quite well actually - ended up running for almost 20 minutes.

For information, BBC Radio Scotland (in the Highlands and Islands only) will be broadcasting a feature item of about 12 minutes duration on Caley Thistle on the "Highland Cafe" programme at 1:15 tomorrow (Fri). The item will look more at ICT's impact on the Inverness community and at financial issues than the playing side and the studio guests will be supporters' spokesperson Mairi MacLean, David Sutherland (of Tullochs, not the Supporters' Trust), Jim Traynor and myself. Although only available live in the Highlands and Islands, I would imagine that there must be some kind of internet availability as well. The live version is on the 92-95FM frequency range which is 94.0 in the Inverness area.

I would agree with Alex's post in all respects except that it wouldn't be English "bias"... they quite simply have a far greater number of good players (but for some reason can't translate that into international success in existing competitions.)

This fuss has all blown up because politicians have once again tried to jump on the bandwagon of sport. Let's face it, the whole lot of them are only interested in their own political aims and couldn't give a toss about the Olympics etc. This is just Big Gordy trying to look like Mr. GB and Wee Alec looking for another excuse to pick a fight with the English. In any case, this is a complete non issue. Football as a sport is a law unto itself simply because of its worldwide size and as such is completely irrelevant to the Olympics and doesn't care about them. The Olympic football competition has always been a joke and whether or not Britain competes in it is really a side issue. I just don't know what the fuss is all about, except perhaps that Scotland etc always get extremely twitchy when their anomalous and privileged positions of places at the FIFA table without being proper sovereign nations comes under any threat. What the recent fuss is really about is that there are people in Scotland bricking it that Scotland has separate FIFA status whereas the likes of Bavaria, Brittany, California don't and this fuss will draw attention to that. They're just trying to keep their heads down. A Scottish Olympic team, apart from being a complete non starter under IOC rules which restrict membership to proper sovereign nations, is a complete nonsense because there simply isn't the talent here and certainly not the facilities. Why not believe the people, like Chris Hoy, who have been there, done it and have the Team GB teeshirt?

You obviously don't listen to the BBC then!

Do you know something that I don't? Is he lining up for County against Charlie in the Legends' game at half time?

Just for information, the BBC will have four reporters at the Caledonian Stadium for the Hamilton game tomorrow. I don't know what the arrangements for the Disapora are, but within the UK the arrangements are as follows.... 92-95FM (94.0 in the immediate Inverness area) - full match commentary from Scott Davie with summaries from ex Caley Thistle manager John Robertson. This is only available in the Highlands and Islands within the area served by the Inverness local news bulletins during the week. 103.5-105FM (104.9 around Inverness) - Open all Mics from grounds across the land, including Jim Spence at the Caledonian Stadium, which will bring the highlights as they happen to the whole of Scotland. TV - BBC1 Scotland - 4:30 to full time. Updates and a full time report from me in a revamped Sportscene programme which will have more match coverage than before. As far as I understand this is the kind of "during the game" coverage which will be the norm for the coming season. The aforementioned Disaporate are, however, effectively in the hands of the opposing clubs (if I understand Scotty's previous drift properly.) Enjoy.

Teaching today eh Charles? Not until next week but in any case my subject is Chemistry! :thumb04:

5th stand has an interesting take on late 17th Century Scottish history!

Thanks Caley D. You have saved me the tedium of once again having to demonstrate how completely wide of the mark this hardy annual is, and indeed has been since before the turn of the millennium.

Do you not mean Grassa went to school with Mike Edwards? :thumb04:

I very much try to avoid commenting on this forum on running stories which I am covering since I have to avoid any potential clash of interest but there has been so much speculation that I feel it would be helpful to give you my understanding of the situation AS AT 1600 BST (things can obviously change) as a result of having been around the club in recent days and of my own deductions. What I am saying here is no more than what I have been reporting through the BBC up to yesterday (Wed) afternoon and I am not aware of any subsequent developments. * It was reported that an offer for Marius Niculae to go to Kaiserslautern for what I believe to be 500,000 POUNDS was made a couple of weeks ago. * The player then asked for leave of absence to go back to Romania and was given this for the "Denmark" week. * Around the same time Marius expressed the preference to move home to Dinamo Bucharest rather than Germany and I understand he has subsequently brokered his personal deal with them by himself. * Bucharest offered 500,000 EUROS (around ?400,000) and Caley Thistle said they would accept this IF the player waived his claim to his cut of the fee. (I don't know exactly how much this is but I could make a ballpark estimate of ?50-70,000) * It is my understanding that Marius initially agreed verbally to this in advance of what was expected to be a more legally binding agreement and negotiations between the clubs continued on that basis. *Accordingly Caley Thistle have refused to sign the deal until they have a legally binding confirmation from Marius that he accepts that arrangement. So far that undertaking has not been received at the Caledonian Stadium (the reasons for the delay are far from clear) so the transfer contract remains unsigned by Caley Thistle and is as a result so far invalid. Marius Niculae therefore remains an Inverness player. * Caley Thistle invoiced Dinamo Bucharest for the transfer fee, payable (older stagers will remember the legal interpretation of that word back in 1995/96!) when the deal became complete - which it is not as yet. They therefore did not expect payment at this stage. * Dinamo Bucharest all the same sent 475,000 euros (the 500,000 minus a 5% levy) to Caley Thistle, possibly implying that they regarded this as a done deal. I am not aware of any plan to "send it back" by 3pm today but equally I am not aware of any active "acceptance" of the cash. * I cannot explain why there have been photos of the player with a pen in his hand on the Dinamo website. * I am assuming that Marius, still a contracted employee of ICT, would have been expected back at training on Tuesday after his agreed leave of absence whereas I understand he is still in Romania. Is he therefore in breach of contract and is he likely to be paid the several hundred pounds a day which his contract, which is still in force, would normally entitle him? I take it he is still training (last seen by me in Inverness on the evening of the St. J game running out Holm Mains). If so, with whom and in the event of injury, who might be liable? That's about it and I really do want to avoid any further comment on what, in my case, is a running story.

I was brought up in the era when you were banned for life if you acepted threepence at the Sunday School picnic. (Now it seems it's difficult to be banned for life if you are an out and out drugs cheat who has made a mockery of sport but that's not what we're talking about here. I can only wait in hope until Thursday's court verdict.) Things have changed drastically within the Olympic movement since that earlier Alf Tupper generation and effectively most participants are professional sportspeople. Apart from football as mentioned, professional tennis stars also take part and (as opposed to Gullikson and Gullikson ) we will now have Murray and Murray representing GB in the Games. When Baron de Coubertin founded the modern Games in 1896, this was an era when the upper classes kept the proles in their places by imposing a totally "amateur" closed shop on sport. This was still very much the case in many sports when I was growing up in the 60s but over the last 30 years or so the whole situation, including the Olympic movement which has become highly financially motivated, has changed. Nowadays overprivileged Oxbridge Twats who don't have to work for a living don't have the same advantage over the Man in the Street who fixes people's cars before buying his fish supper and heading for the track where, after a dramatic sprint finish, crosses the line with the immortal words "I run 'im"! In fact Tough of the Track was an early statement against this Corinthian exclusivity and in the Alf Tupper cartoons the posh guys were always supercilious cheating gits who usually came out on top... except when our Alf "run 'em". (Occasionally, on a more Jingoistic note Alf instead "run" slightly dodgy Johnny Foreigners who were just as capable of sharp practice.) Anyway, I digress. Without going into the down sides of professionalised sport (such as an enhanced temptation to take drugs when money is at stake), changes like this have certainly opened up opportunities to the genuinely talented from whatever background, rather than favour Lord Snooty and his pals.

"What a great game golf is...... even with a set of man boobs like mine you can still make a fortune." :015:

TMFTJ's wee hint has, I think, cracked it for me. Was it not Fort William who beat Inverness Thistle 1-0 at Claggan in the Q Cup just weeks after they cqme into the HL which was in 1985? Ft. Wm were elected in April 1985 and began playing in the August. SP... I hope Inverness City are going to become upwardly mobile. My daughter is club Treasurer!

Inverness City, managed by Stevie Graham and Mike Pollard, are definitely on the verge of leaving the North Caledonian League and going junior. All that is awaited is final formal clearance from the juniors and that may also have been obtained by now. Strangely enough they have so far been unable to obtain a pitch within the city boundary and play at North Kessock.

I could just imagine the wind dropping and the ref abandoning the match for "bad light stopped play". Make Tommy fill up his tractor with chicken poo and run it off the resulting methane I say! :015:

A bit difficult if the game didn't even start until some hours after the Courier's Monday afternoon deadline, don't you think?

You'd have heard this story a week ago if you'd been tuned to BBC Radio Scotland's Highland bulletins! Apparently the money is shared by any clubs the player has been with over the preceding 2 years so I wonder if Sporting Lisbon and Mainz are also due a slice?

And this from Alex O'Henley... a man who served his time as a Gaelic journalist at the BBC in the said Inverness!

It has indeed. Such draws were regarded as a ticket to the next round for HL sides and I well remember the utter shock the once Caley were taken to a replay by Spartans, I think in the late 80s. Unfortunately as far as the Highland League are concerned, scorelines like QoS 2 Ross County 6, Caley 2 St. J 2, Caley 1 Airdrie 1 (Caley won on penalties), Caley 3 Clyde 1, Thistle 3 Killie 0 and Elgin beating Arbroath to get to the quarter finals in 1968 look unlikely to be repeated, even with the kind of money the backers of the Aberdeenshire HL contingent seem top be putting in. And if scorelines like the above v SFL teams were not uncommon 20 or so years ago, what chance did ESL or SSL teams have (qv Ross County 11 St. Cuthberts 0... I really expected a team from the Edinburgh Cooperative to do better! :015:) In fact HL teams probably had had to put better sides out in the North Qualifying Cup than they met from the SSL and the ESL in days gone by in the Scottish Cup. In contrast, I was Sportsound match reporter at Lossiemouth v Spartans in December 2005 where it was a 0-5 scoreline going on 0-10.

Mark McCulloch v Dundee United, Scottish Cup replay 1998?

It would be difficult to overestimate the huge amount of effort and the contribution Bobby made to Ross County's election to the SFL in 1994. bobby joined County in 1987 when they were ?250,000 in debt and unable to pay players. By the early 90s they were Highland League champions in addition to many other trophies won and had several famous Scottish Cup victories to their credit. Bobby had previously been manager at Keith and Raith Rovers.

A Highand Theme Park is a place where St. Mirren fans can come to admire Ross Tokely (Biological classification - Rossus Tokliensis) in his natural habitat. :015:

But on the other hand there might not..... :015: