But Inverness Caley Thistle didn’t go into administration – as had previously happened at Hearts, Dundee and Rangers (remarkable coincidences these) and were in a decent position for a play-off shot at making the Premiership next season.
Dundee Utd were run-away leaders and were going to win the Championship but Inverness, when the pandemic stopped play, were looking good for a play-off crack at the Premiership’s second bottom side. That could have been Hamilton or Ross County or maybe even Hearts.
The SPFL’s plans last week would have promoted Dundee Utd as Champions of the Championship and opened the door for Inverness Caley Thistle to join them through the league restructuring that would inevitably follow.
It just seems unjust – as we have repeatedly argued on The Celtic Star – to relegate Hearts, Partick Thistle and Stranraer and it would be hard to find a club who would argue against increasing the leagues by two clubs next season. Brora Rangers and Kelty Hearts from the Highland and Lowland leagues (curiously while the former has had their Champions status confirmed the latter has employees previously associated with Rangers who have been among the null and void brigade over the last few weeks) would enter the second division and there would be no relegation.
So Scot Gardiner, with his twenty years experience in the game, at the end of last week had to tick a box on the SPFL ballot paper that would get Inverness around £350,000 in immediate much needed income and in the next stage over the next few weeks would help seal the restructuring that would see Inverness promoted back in the Scottish Premiership.
That money and that promotion would put Gardiner in a position where he could say that he has delivered on his objectives set out when he was appointed as the Inverness CEO to represent the club’s best interests.
And if you supported Inverness Caley Thistle, you’d think that recruiting Scott Gardiner had proved to be a sound piece of business as he’d just delivered big-time for the Highland club. Much needed revenue and desperately needed promotion – job done.
Well that’s not how it’s all panned out for the Highland club and maybe it’s time someone told them what’s really been happening…
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