Andy’s Sting In The Tale (11/10/24) “What is it About Blue Jerseys and Numbers That Don’t Add Up?”
Date: 1st November 2024
(Photo:@Homesoffootball)
Everyone and his granny knows now that my club, ICT have slid into an inevitable but ugly admin pre-pack ditch following years of serial over-ambition, financial mis-management and equally lousy fan engagement, latterly by an out of touch CEO who only ever wanted a gig at his boyhood club.
I have no idea if anyone there foresaw the financial carnage inevitably heading their way.
They should have.
But somehow probably not because along the way they lured, and reeled-in various directors loans and money from fans like the ‘Muirfield Mills’ whose ‘investments’ were desperately needed by the club but not for ‘investment’ in the business sense.
What was wanted by a cynical club was just money for wages based on the hope that something ‘would turn up’.
It was all soon pissed away and all totally unnecessary and wrong.
And I wonder about ‘Fiduciary Duty’ along the way.
Running a business is walking the financial tightrope between Income and Expenditure.
Income should dictate everything and expenditure should be less than income.
And ‘moonbeam’ battery storage facilities and freeport parking sites were only ever distractions and someone should have rung alarm bells.
I don’t know the future financial reality as of now but the beancounters on the admin side should be thinking long term and about the community and while a new owner with a magic money tree might appear it is more likely that new ‘owners’ will be predatory and want more than just an Inverness-based football club.
What I do know and am sad about is all the previous shareholders have lost any rights to their shares and some local suppliers will also get burnt.
That’s never nice.
Another team in blue jerseys hit the financial headlines this week.
Record £88.3 M turnover, £17.2 M losses and a player trading loss of north of £8m.
Not to forget fans who are angry at the football side and want the manager to be replaced even though that will cost Mi££ions the club doesn’t have.
Football fans often get waylaid by stupid things like sacking the manager, or who the next signing is rather than how their club is being run for them.
This southern based blue-jerseyed club has had cumulative losses of over £100M since Charles Green bought some assets from the receiver in 2012.
How is that sustainable?
A simple answer.
A constant annual round of shares being issued and bought by people with money not looking for a return.
How long can this annual subsidy last for?
As long as fans are willing to step up to the block.
Inverness Caley Thistle ran out of funders as have several other SPFL clubs over the years but eventually all wells run dry.
Loss making SPFL members are deeply worrying for the stability of our game.
Andy’s Sting in the Tale
1. ITV and English Football
2. Los Malhumorados de Madrid
3. National Hero Abused by Racist Madrileños
4. The Day the Donald Was on Saint and Greavsie
5. Fairsquare, Fifa not Fit for Purpose
6. The Play Off Against Finland
7. McTotally
1. We Care About England Much More Than Teams in Blue, Red or Green
I’ve been campaigning for all international games to be on free to air tv.
If I lived in England or was an England fan in Scotland, I wouldn’t have to.
This week ITV have announced that the Lionesses games will be free across the UK including Scottish, until 2029.
This is deeply political and hardly made our football press if at all.
So will ITV also show Scottish matches and will it include men’s football in time.
No, don’t be stupid Andy.
Holyrood/Westminster, this is blatant discrimination and needs sorting out.
2. Blusas de Chicas Grandes
, AKA Big Girls Blouses.
Last week the Ballon d’Or awards were made and Rodri rightly and righteously won.
(The winner is usually leaked into the public domain well in advance of the award meeting but this year only broke on the day).
Real Madrid wanted Vinicius Junior to win.
So Real at the very last minute withdrew their 50 person Vinicius Victory Party saying somewhat acidly.
“The Ballon d’Or and Uefa does not respect us so the award does not exist for us”.
3. Yamal Racially Abused in Madrid
You might think a club with a player of African origin, Vinicius Jr, who has been racially abused all round Spain would be aware of the cancer of racism.
You might also think a Barca ‘youngster’, Yamal, who along with Rodri made the difference in the Euros would have a place in all Spanish football hearts.
No.
Yamal who is a Spaniard of Equatorial Guinea and Moroccan heritage was attacked by Madrileños because of his dark skin even though he is a Spanish hero.
In June three Valencia fans were jailed for 8 months for racial abuse of Vinicius but maybe Madrid fans can’t see the extreme irony.
I remember the early days of black players in Scotland when fans thought it was funny and on topic to make nasty chants and buy yellow fruits to throw on to the pitch.
And it still happens in Scotland outside Uefa fixtures and its strict liability.
I hate the anti-Irish racism that still exists in our game and is no different to the current nonsense in Spain.
4. You Couldn’t Make it Up
I loved Saint and Greavsie.
Nothing today on any channel comes close to those two erstwhile sporting heroes sharing a deep love of the game.
In 1991 the programme was somehow broadcast from the lobby at Trump Tower on 5th Avenue and The Donald was invited to make the 5th round League Cup draw after his English secretary recognised our pair setting up.
The Donald muscled in, a trait he still has, but had no idea what was going on, another of his current strengths.
When he drew Leeds v Man U he declared it, ‘A Biggie’, after a sharp poke in the ribs ‘That sounds like a game I want to go to’.
The Donald then acquired a Saint and Greavsie mug before getting into his bin lorry and driving into the sunset.
5. Calls for EU to Reform Global Governing Body
A 170 page report by ‘FairSquare’ singled out Fifa’s distribution of development monies as a blatant system of ‘patronage’ that is designed to prevent structural reform of the organisation.
“Fifa is a commercial rights holder, a development organisation, a competition organiser, and a global regulator all rolled up into one big mess”, said FairSquare director, Nick McGeehan.
“Fifa is structurally resistant to internal reform because its senior officials and a critical mass of its members associations are locked into a mutually dependent system of patronage, whereby Fifa’s development money is redistributed in such a way as to encourage the member associations political support for the president”.
“Football is too socially, politically and economically important to be governed this poorly and only external regulation will provide the foundations for Fifa to deliver on football’s transformative potential and to prevent the organisation causing more serious harm”.
6. Scotland On the Way?
Well done Pedro and Scotland Women at Easter Road on Tuesday.
It has set up a first leg against Finland at Easter Road on 29th November with the second leg on December 3rd in what I’ve been assured will be a balmy Helsinki.
Scotland are ranked, 23, Finland 33rd but don’t be fooled.
Two recent Finnish games at home against Holland, ranked 11 and Norway, ranked 16, ended in 1-1 draws.
Well done the SFA for tickets at £10 with kids free and even better well done for allowing seat choice and not the usual Hobson’s.
7. Scott on Fire
“Man Utd directors should be arrested for allowing him to leave,” Paulo De Canio.
Napoli are top of the Seria A and have even changed their style of play to accommodate “McTotally”, who is everywhere on the pitch and blowing the fans and the opposition away.
“Best £25.4M transfer bargain ever.
That’s it for another week.
Feedback and wee stories always welcome.
Andy’s Album of the week
Various: Kill Bill Volume 2
I inherited a few discards when one of my kids left home and I enjoy this one as background muzak, aka ‘Lift music’.
Artistes from Morricone to Malcolm McLaren to Johnny Cash,.
It shouldn’t work but somehow does.
Maybe a start of film soundtracks featured in the weeks ahead.
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