Board hold talks on how Inverness Caledonian Thistle move forward
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BOARD members were locked in talks last night regarding the future of Inverness Caledonian Thistle following its relegation from the Scottish Championship.
Officials were in a board meeting on Monday at the time of the Inverness Courier going to press to discuss how the club would move forward as it prepares for League One next season.
Nobody at the club was available for comment before the board meeting yesterday as talks were expected to start yesterday afternoon and continue into the evening.
The relegation also comes as Inverness Caledonian Thistle are preparing to restructure its finances, with its new budget expected to be introduced on June 1.
The restructure is expected to look at all aspects of the clubs, with chairman Ross Morrison saying previously it would include looking at the club’s youth academy and cutting the squad’s wage budget.
At the Inverness Caledonian Thistle Supporters Trust meeting in April, Morrison says the club could not afford to keep running the youth academy in its current form and was looking for a sponsor.
He also said that the club were looking to slash the players wages budget which was currently over £1 million.
Morrison has also previously said that club want to remain full time, but also said he could not rule out Inverness deciding to go part time in the future.
They said as part of the club’s planned restructure, they are calling for a democratically elected fans’ representative to sit on the board and to ensure the youth academy is protected.
They said:” A series of questionable decisions in numerous aspects of the stewardship of the club has led us to this situation.
Inverness Caledonian Thistle FC is at a crossroads. The decisions made now will have an impact for decades to come, which is why they need to be the right ones. The club has experienced severe financial difficulties since being relegated to the championship. A prolonged period in League One will exacerbate this.
“We are therefore calling on significant change to be made at the top of the club. Individuals with fresh ideas have joined the Board of Directors in recent times, and new additions have been made behind the scenes, but more change is needed. The burden of the current failure lies squarely at the feet of the leadership, and we now demand change that allows fresh stewardship of the football club.
“The club’s planned restructure must prioritise spend on the first team and the club’s youth infrastructure over everything else to ensure that we have a full-time first team squad for the League One campaign and that the future of the Football Academy is protected.
In the coming seasons the club will need to supplement and staff the first team squad with a greater number of academy players, something that the current First Team manager has continually refused to do.
“Only by making these changes can Inverness Caledonian Thistle move forward, reconnect with the fanbase and provide our supporters with a football club of which they can be proud.”
