According to the Inverness Courier, Clach haven't paid their rent in 2-3 years and are being called before the Highland Council to explain themselves. Grant Street Park was purchased by the Common Good (fireworks) Fund a few years back. If they can't find a way out of this they could turfed out and/or expelled from the Highland League.

The Courier's editorial is basically of the opinion that it is a shame but it's their own fault for taking advantage of the Council's good will and maybe they could groundshare with their poster boys ICT. What's left of the footballing history of Inverness would be gone. Not that it would matter to most.

I would've posted a link but the Courier website isn't up to date.

So they owe the Common Good Fund then? Meanwhile they pish money up against the Kessock Bridge on fireworks while a community could lose it's football club and one of Inverness's biggest sporting legacies?

Grim news, but Clach have been in worse positions. They'll survive. I hope. A city the size of Inverness without a real football team wouldn't bear thinking about.

Inverness Courier

Apparently Clach have responded by saying they are looking at putting down an artificial surface at Grant Street which they believe would pretty much pay for itself and go on to make them a tidy profit. Theyre also saying there has been a bit of a misunderstanding the with Common Good Fund. Think Clach will come out of this ok.

I hope so.

Like most other County / ICT fans - I have always kept an eye out on the HFL. Would not be the same without them.

Fingers crossed.

As Haitch said, i hope so. It didn't sound like it from the Courier article (not paying 3 years rent!) but i'm quite enjoying going to watch Clach this season.

if the cgf dont step in again then i wouldnt be surprised to see tullochs get involved somewhere along the line.

do ict need an artificial training/reserve pitch? probably not, with us using the facilities at the fort, but maybe theres scope there.

ict have saved clach before and i think we owe it to the history of inverness football to get involved again.


sadly though, the time will come when everybody has to say enough is enough. i think we'll see clach come through this one as they have in the past, but it may be the last time and after 2/3 attempts to pull the club from the brink theres going to be questions about how much is worth paying to 'save' history. its not like grant street is a museum or a site of any real value other than for new flats or a viable football team, if clach cant run under their own steam then their demise is inevitable

i hope they get their new pitch, sounds like a fair plan to me, or we could soon see clach playing their games at the bucht (if anywhere)

Surely ICT, Clachnacuddin and the City Council working together and putting down an artificial surface for Clachnacuddin, ICT Reserves and community youth coaching and matches is ideal?

Spoken like a true ICT customer.

Might be a solution, but it's hardly ideal. Grant Street has one of the best pitches I've ever seen.

Clach are great people. Hope they come through this.

whats the alternative..? giving them quarter of a million once a decade to play infront of a few dozen folk? no matter the amount of goodwill we all have for clach there has to be a monetary limit to theyre survival, as there is for all clubs

there were about 200 people at the ict v aberdeen reserve game on a cold midweek afternoon down the longman ffs. if ict played their reserve games down grant street and charged everybody a couple of quid each then itd go along way to helping the clachers oot.

the only way itd be possible is if theres investment in more than just the pitch, its been years since i was in the clach changing rooms but they were manky when i last visited, hardly ideal for ourselves or spl teams visiting.

What about the Highland Football Academy?

Yup.....ICT already have the all weather pitch at Charleston....(as do those that Clach would look to attract with theirs!)
I dont think the all weather pitch is the answer to Clachs woes somehow

no wonder they dont have any cash with all them neds sneaking in week in week out. i really hope they can sort things out would be sad to lose a club like clach, fair enough they dont pull the biggest of crowds but they probably have the most vocal supporters in the highland league. does there social club take alot of money in ? and do they get alot of sponsors ?

The all weather pitch at Charleston is part of the Highland Football Academy, it's there for ICT and anyone else to use. Another artificial surface in Inverness would certainly get it's use.

Clach certainly have the most vocal supporters in Inverness. Good noise at the 'vale game before the trouble started. I think the social club was a useful money spinner at one point but it has it's own losses now which aren't hellping matters.

No invoices for three years and then one arrives back dating those three years at 14k a year.
Blyth Spartans pay £350 a year for thier pitch in Edinburgh.

Time will tell what happens in the mean time "the coaching staff and players plan on getting on with the football!" Clach Assistant Manager at 1619pm this afternoon.

It's a bit late in the season for them to start worrying about that!

Only time I have seen them play was the replay at Edinburgh City and it was a dire game!

Thats a bit harsh on them given they are an English club

On to football matters, I'm anticipating a Michael Mifsud-type impact from Nairn's new Maltese international Johnathan Holland on Saturday at Clach Park. Will it happen? Almost certainly.

As far as the Clach social club goes, my understanding is that it is now a seperate concern from the football club.
What trouble was at the vale game?

There's a thread on the game further down the HL Forum.

Isn't there a casino night planned for the social club tonight? Residents on the likes of Craigton and Bridgeview will be getting the mothballs out of their tuxes as we speak.

Seriously though, every bit will help and I hope they can come through this.

I think it's bloody tragic. Makes me annoyed that i didn't start going to see them long before this season.

£14,000 a year for rent sounds bloody steep when considering Clach say they don't know of any other club paying more than £1,800. Also, i think the artificial pitch plan is a complete non-starter - it'll cost a bomb to install and it's already been said on this thread that there are other plastic pitches in Inverness already.

Lets deflected the fact we are in the shite for spending 250000 on Fireworks by making a fuss about Clach.

Eh?

I think Rowan's just having a dig at the Inverness Fireworks Fund.

I actually think this is only serving to raise a few more questions about those in charge of the fund though.

Fair enough.

I think the Council should bend over backwards to accommodate Clach. They won't, but they should.

They aren't. There are people working very hard to try and resolve the situation.

I'm sure the other side of the coin is: Why should they?

Personally I think if you asked the people of Inverness (whatever the common good fund is actually for), should it spend obscene amounts on fireworks or do what it can to help the city's Highland League club survive for a fraction of the cost, then people would probably like to see the club survive.

I'm not suggesting Clach should be a charity case. Folk would certainly argue there's plenty more worthwhile things they could put the money to and I completely understand that. But in the light of the fireworks carry on this doesn't make them (the council) look like a bunch of good guys.

I think the other side of the coin will probably win the day.

Where are the ICT fans asking about another merger? Inverness Caledonian Clachnacuddin Thistle would have Jeff Stelling shitting his pants.

Seriously tho, this is not sounding good. I find it hard to believe a club can let slip the paying of rent to fourteen large, tho.

There's something not right about this whole affair, ok the rent seems a bit steep but then you have to look at teams like Rothes and Lossie with about the same turnouts and yet they seem to manage without these crisis we have at Grant Street every few years, seems strange to me.

I was among the 200 or so at the game yesterday and yet in the local paper every man and his dog are turning out to be Clach supporters, pity they don't attend games, remember that packed meeting they had at the Thistle Hotel during the last crisis, there was four times the attendance at the meeting than they get on a saturday, kinda says it all.

Did they not just get an unexpected windfall of £10,000 from the SFA for Christmas? Surely that will pay most of the rent alone?

Not quite. They owe £49,000 plus whatever debt they have on top of that.

Ah..tombola anyone?

A few HFL clubs, Lossie included, do have the occasional crisis re finances, but none tend to let it go as far as Clach do. Clach weren't exactly shy with the cash when they were winning the league four years ago, come to think of it.

Decision deferred for a month but Clach's business plan branded an embarrasment. Seemed like a few councillors were out for blood but thankfully enough of them appreciated the history and importance of Clach and have given them time. It would seem though that if the council do help out Clach it might well be on the condition of the current board being booted out.

Story

It seems folk are calling for David Dowling to quit as chairman of Clach which is entirely reasonable given the, er, handling of the rent situation. I wonder though who would be willing to invest/take over the running of the club should he quit.

Just read the "story" link above from the Inverness Courier. Checked one of the associated links to another Courier story, "Decision Day on Clachs future", which stated Clach won the Highland League 3 times. Clach have won the Highland League a record equalling 18 times, same as the mighty CALEY. Shocking journalism, but is anyone surprised?

How anyone can confuse 3 with 18 is beyond me. Not surprised PRS, amateur journalism from an amateur rag.

thats unbelievable-the journalist who filed the report obviously knows nothing about the local football scene and should be sacked forthwith.I could have understood one of the nationals getting it so wrong but not the courier.Obviously too busy developing "positive" ICT stories to know his business

Maybe he forgot to add "in anybody's living memory."

Clicky

I think it's looking good in that the working group of 5 councillors that has been set up to look at the options contains at least 2 known Clach fans.

You make your bed, you f u c k i n g lie in it.


I have a soft spot for Clach but im that pissed off by shit money men in suits- I really think a 122yr old club going under wouldn't be a bad thing. It would give a few clubs a wake up call and hopefully that clown running the show at Clach might throw himself off the kessock bridge with Guilt.

Probably. Lets start with, say, Ross County.

Founded in 1929. I dont think we are old enough. Elgin would be good, There yrs old and aren't going to do anything other than mid-table in the third.