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EXCLUSIVE: Inverness Caley Thistle chairman Ross Morrison says ‘I would stand down tomorrow’ if it helped the club





ICTFC Chairman Ross Morrison says ‘I can understand the fans feelings’ as he speaks out for the first time since a fans revolt over moving training to Fife. Picture: Callum Mackay.
ICTFC Chairman Ross Morrison says ‘I can understand the fans feelings’ as he speaks out for the first time since a fans revolt over moving training to Fife. Picture: Callum Mackay.

Inverness Caledonian Thistle chairman Ross Morrison said he is ready to step down if it would truly help the club as he defends the decision to move the first team training to Kelty Hearts ground.

The chairman answered over a dozen direct questions about the feelings of fans about the move, the possibility of reversing the decision and whether or not he or Scot Gardiner should or would step down.

Part two of the interview with Mr Morrison: Inverness Caley Thistle chairman says ‘I get that people are p****d off’

Mr Morrison stands by the move arguing it was ultimately made in order to keep the club full-time by saving anywhere from £200,000 to £400,000 a year while at the same time making it easier to attract players.

But fans have been left infuriated and the development sparked an unprecedented reaction. The ICT Supporters Trust is due to meet this evening to discuss a collective response that could involve boycotting season tickets in a bid to get the board to reverse their decision.

Mr Morrison said he would be happy to change tack if there was a solution to Caley Thistle’s huge losses, saying: “It has cost me well into seven figures but I have done it for the benefit of the club so I would step down if someone were to come up.”

Here is the first part of the interview in full. The second part can be found here with Mr Morrison discusses the impact of a season ticket boycott, if the club will be “completely disconnected” from the city, and the status of the youth academy

Q: First, can I get your reaction to the strongly held feelings of many supporters who have been using strong words like betrayal about the decision to move the training ground?

A: The fact is that moving the training ground is for two reasons. First, that is financial, the club needed to cut its costs massively, we were running far too rich and we have been losing far too much money.

I can’t put in any more money, the other directors can’t put any more money in so we have had to cut out costs. If we had a bucket of money and we had a white knight who came along I would love to stay in Inverness and put players up wherever we could put players up – but we can’t.

So we have had to look at cutting our costs and one of our main costs is accommodation, which is running at £200,000 a year – we can’t afford to do it.

We have then looked at getting players up the road and we have had the experience in the last couple of years of speaking to players we have wanted to get and wanted to keep who have decided to go elsewhere.

Not because they did not want to come to us but because they just did not want to leave their families down south and leave basically on their own for several days a week because on a one or two year contract they weren’t prepared to move up permanently.

I can understand that and that was another reason but the decision means that we can have players who live in the central belt, come to their work at 10am and be back home to look after their kids at 3pm.

I can understand the fans feelings but all we are actually doing is shifting the training to a more efficient site.

Q: There have been calls for Scot Gardiner and even the board, including yourself to step down – is that something you are considering or is a possibility?

A: Listen, I can only speak for myself. Everybody is expendable for the sake of the football club. I am the chairman, if someone comes along to me and says I have got the best idea in a more successful way then I would be the first person to shake their hand and say ‘on you go, get in there, do it for the club’.

I would stand down tomorrow. I have been there for six years now. It has cost me way into seven figures but I have done it for the benefit of the club so I would step down if someone were to come up.

Nobody is expendable, the club is the most important thing and that is the reason we are doing this – because the club is the most important thing.

Q: And are you content with Scot Gardiner staying in position?

Scot has been very loyal to the football club, he is very knowledgeable in what he does and as I say no one is sacrosanct for the benefit of the football club but at the present moment we need all hands to the pumps.

We need to stay together to try and get over this because going to the First Division is horrendous for our finances, they were poor before but they have been cut to the bone on this one.

Q: Fundamentally there are two positions here. The club feels it financially needs the move but supporters feel the club is losing something truly unique - how do you bridge that gap?

If you have got to make a decision – and the number one priority is to keep the club going – then how do you do it? If we remain full time, we can’t do it in Inverness, I cannot see how we can do it.

There may be people out there who can see it but they need to come up but they haven’t come up and chapped on the door to tell us how we could do it.

The number one priority is, I think, to keep the club going. The number two priority is keeping us full-time so we have a chance of winning this league again. On bridging the gap with fans, well that is one of the reasons I am speaking with you.

I read all the stuff that people are making comment on that it is ‘ripping the heart out of the institution’. Okay, the first team won’t be there all the time but how many people actually go and watch the first team train out at Fort George?

Will there be players that come and do openings of this or that or visit hospitals? Yes, there will but they won’t be there all the time.

Take Arbroath, I spoke to the ex-chairman the other day. They don’t train in Arbroath. There are other teams that train in different places. The questions you go back to: do you want us to be out of Inverness for training? No I don’t. Do we have to be [out of Inverness] to be a better team to survive? Yes, I think we do, but that is only my opinion.

I think we would save certainly £300,000 to £400,000 but I don’t see how we would save that any other way. I stand ready to be corrected but nobody has done it.

I have got to take responsibility as the chairman. The idea came to me, and I thought we cannot move down there. Then I thought about it and it works. And getting players is as important as the money situation. Last season I think we could have kept David Wotherspoon if he didn’t have to come up the road.

So it is a double-edged sword: you save your money on accommodation and you have happier players. If we could have got 11 or 12 guys from the Highland League we would have them already because they are not there.



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