The Merkinch side has leased the ground from the council ever since the Common Good Fund purchased it around a decade ago.

But debts from unpaid rent alone have mounted over the last three years and are now understood to be into five figures.

This has prompted council officials to draw up a report and invite club chairman David Dowling to explain the situation at the next Inverness City Committee on 4th February.

The local authority's City manager David Haas said issues relating to the lease had to be resolved and would not rule out the possibility of Grant Street Park being repossessed. However, he stressed that the decision rested with councillors.

Among them is Inverness Central's Peter Corbett, a former player, manager, secretary and director of the club, who called for all the options to be discussed once information from the club was available.

"They haven't paid their rent for the last maybe two or three years and it is pretty serious," he said. "It's obviously disappointing to me as a Clach supporter and is also very worrying.

"It's also disappointing that the Clach board haven't fulfilled their obligations."

Fellow ward member Donnie Kerr described the sum owed as considerable, despite the fact that many local businessmen had ploughed a large investment into the 2004 Highland League champions over recent years.

"We are not talking about a couple of weeks' rent here — we are talking about a more substantial length of time," he said. "The local community has certainly known that they are in financial problems but I don't think anybody realises perhaps the extent."

Mr Dowling declined to reveal how much rent was unpaid, describing it as a matter for the club and the council. However, when asked about the current financial situation at Clach he said: "Life is always very difficult. You are battling all the time to try and take in enough money to pay everybody, but that isn't anything new. If there is anything specific, like this report, that you would like me to comment on I'll not hide from it. I haven't seen it so I don't feel able to."

Clach was saved from receivership in 1990 by a group of investors who included Mr Dowling, Councillor Corbett's younger brother Billy and Inverness Millburn councillor Kenneth MacLeod.

Yesterday Billy Corbett was horrified at the prospect that Clach could be forced to move out of Grant Street Park, describing the stadium as an integral part of the club's 120-year history. He hoped the club could be helped, particularly as £250,000 of Common Good Fund money was found to back the Highland 2007 firework finale earlier this month.

"It's part of the ethos of Merkinch," added Councillor MacLeod, a club shareholder. "It is a requirement of the Scottish Football Association that a club has an enclosed ground and if they don't then they are not going to be able to survive."

Last year The Inverness Courier reported that Clach faced an uncertain future due to financial problems within its social club which came close to closure in 2005. The club's balance sheet for 2005/2006 showed creditors were owed £216,908.

andrew.dixon@inverness-courier.co.uk

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