Historic Scottish football club plunged into administration

INVERNESS Caledonian Thistle have officially entered administration.

The Highland club may only have officially formed 30 years ago in 1994, but in that time have claimed two Scottish First Division/Championship titles and also won the Scottish Cup in 2015.

Caley Thistle have been in financial meltdown since the team was relegated from the Championship at the end of last season.

A statement read: “James Stephen, Malcolm Cohen and Shane Crooks at BDO have been appointed Joint Administrators of Inverness Caledonian Thistle Football Club (Tuesday 22nd October 2024).”

A spokesperson at administrators BDO added: “We can confirm a formal appointment has been made and Inverness Caledonian Thistle is now in administration.

“We understand this will be a difficult and uncertain time for the club, its staff, its loyal fan base and the local community.

“The Administrators will be in a position to provide further information and their plan to seek to secure the long term future of the Club in due course.”

An SPFL statement confirmed the club would be docked 15 points as a result.

It read: “The Scottish Professional Football League (SPFL) has today confirmed the imposition of a 15-point deduction for Inverness Caledonian Thistle, as per SPFL rules on clubs suffering an insolvency event.

“The William Hill League 1 table has been updated accordingly.”

Inverness Caledonian Thistle was formed following a merger between Inverness Thistle and Caledonian FC in August 1994.

The club rose up through the leagues to the old First Division (second tier) thanks to three promotions in five years.

They famously beat Celtic in the Scottish Cup in 2000, gaining national media attention as a result (and giving birth to the iconic Sun headline, Super Caley Go Ballistic Celtic Are Atrocious.

By 2004 they had reached the top flight of Scottish football and over the next ten years would remain a regular presence there.

Inverness also reached the final of the League Cup in 2014, winning the Scottish Cup a year later.

As recently as 2023, the club were back in the final of the Scottish Cup again, losing to Celtic in Ange Postecoglou‘s farewell match.

But things took a turn for the worse the following season with a disastrous campaign in the league that ended with relegation to the third tier.

This off-season has seen the club embroiled in almost constant turmoil, from the embarrassing u-turn concerning their training base to disputes between club chiefs past and present.

In this time manager Duncan Ferguson revealed he has been working for free in a desperate bid to keep the club afloat.

A fundraiser to bring in much-needed cash fell well short of its intended target.

It was widely expected Caley Thistle would fall into administration and today’s news has confirmed that process.

They even rejected a £1.2m bid to save the club last week.

Inverness are due to play Dumbarton away this weekend.

Entering administration will see the club deducted 15 points, putting them on MINUS six for the season.

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