ICTChris

I would be amazed if this event ever happens. There are huge barriers to it - anyone involved will be banned from competing in normal sport and will thus have to sacrifice their career to compete in it. For athletes that means only has beens or never will be’s would consider it. It’s most likely that guys who have already been popped for doping will sign up. Not only will the athletes involved face sanction but the administrators, coaches, venues, medical staff would all be kissing their future livelihoods in sport goodbye if they get involved. So, again, rather than the elite you’ll likely get a load of already banned coaches or guys who have been suspended for other reasons. Most performance enhancing drugs are either outright illegal or subject to legal sanctions in many countries. For example, if you wanted to host the Enhanced Games in the UK then the main PEDs for endurance events (EPO) and speed/power events (anabolic steroids) are illegal on the UK. How can you administer them, how could anyone test them for purity etc? There are more practical concerns than that. There are a whole gamut of PEDs, do you just have a free for all or do you have a variety of races for people on different drugs, the way you have loads of different event for different disabilities in the Paralympics? The EPO 400m, the Nandrolone 400m, the Tren 400m? If you don’t do that you just say “it’s a free for all” then you encourage athletes to endanger themselves by taking large quantities of PEDs. That’s the final point about it - PEDs are dangerous and especially so if you take them in large doses. EPO is widely believed to have caused a number of deaths in cyclists; numerous bodybuilders have died as a result of steroids. As I said, I very much doubt it’ll happen and I hope it doesn’t.

I think it's more likely that people will just spend what would once have been an inheritence - one of those quoted in the article says that his parents took early retirement and are spending all their pension lump sum on holidays.

ScumPee PooShited 0 Invermess 5 (five own goals probably)

I guess he’ll just have to Roll With It.

We currently have a situation in my wife’s family where an elderly person is suffering from dementia but the process of getting them into a care home is being strung out partly because some of the people who have POA benefit from them not going in. Genuinely surprising to see people behave like this over a little bit of money. You’d think people would want the best for their family when they are ill but apparently not.

Saw this article earlier - millennials stand to inherit more than £2 trillion worth of property in the coming years as their parents die and leave their offspring the spoils. https://apple.news/AV6TvJxKeSWuLAeHABegPRg This giant generational transfer isn’t without hitches though - more and more wills are being contested legally and the increase of “blended families” with stepchildren due to divorced parents remarrying can complicate matters. Do any P&Bers stand to inherit generational wealth? Have the P&B boomers written up wills or will they leave their descendants to fight it out like rats in sack?

I can’t say I’ve personally seen sectarianism really anywhere in Scotland, aside from a couple of football grounds and their surrounding areas on match days. Of course, I don’t go to places where you’d likely see it One thing that is slightly strange is the beginning of Orange / Apprentice Boys marches in Inverness, which didn’t exist until a couple of years ago. You hear people say that it’s because Glaswegians have moved up to Inverness in the last few years as the city has grown in size but I don’t really buy that, particularly as the march was set up by a bunch of guys from Perth. There was an attempt to hold one in Aberdeen last year but it was voted down by the council. I think I saw it said somewhere that the number of these matches taking place is increasing everywhere in Scotland, I guess this reflects that. ETA - The March in Aberdeen is actually in Stonehaven and has been banned by a sheriff this week.

Apparently some people are claiming you can legally refuse to pay tax to protest government policy in relation to the war in Gaza. Interesting part of the thread where they say that we don’t know how widespread these beliefs are but that most councils have included them on FAQs on their websites suggesting that they must be fairly common. I remember speaking to a policeman who said that most coppers encounter people using these arguments to try and get out of speeding tickets or traffic offences.

I don’t think I’ve ever visited a part of Scotland where I haven’t thought most locals were nice. Obviously you get individuals who are dicks and sometimes groups of people are unfriendly or cause issues but overall our country and countrymen are good.

Yep, I think that's the only way the sport could possibly be developed - there's a limited pool of adults playing rugby and some of them would enjoy playing league in the summer. Then try and develop the game in younger age groups for kids who play in areas where there isn't a strong rugby tradition. I do remember seeing reports of clubs in Elgin and the Highlands back then but if you look back, these clubs all folded when the RFL withdrew funding from Scottish rugby league. If you read rugby league reporting or forums there's a constant debate - should the game invest in the heartlands or try and push out into new areas. I can understand the RFL thinking what's the point in investing big money in places where there doesn't seem to be huge interest. Professional sport is a hard business to succeed in - just look at how many big rugby union clubs have failed in England in recent years.

That’s an AI image.

Getting relegated would be very bad for us. On the pitch, you'd have to assume Ferguson would leave if we went down and we'd need to completely rebuild with a new manager in a much weakened position financially. As noted above a struggle would be highly likely. Off the pitch, it would mean further losses, the people covering the losses have clearly reached the end of their tether with it and are more likely to say no more. It would most likely lead to the end of the club as we have it at the moment to be honest. The only way it could possibly be a positive is if it lead to a change in the board, or in the ownership of the club and I don't think that will happen.

I see that the International Rugby League have reclassified Scotland Rugby League as an affiliate member, along with Ireland, Italy, Lebanon and Russia. This means that Scotland cannot qualify for the next Rugby League World Cup, due to be held in the Southern Hemisphere in 2026. The decision is made on the basis of the strength of the domestic game, with countries that prioritise development of the game given membership. A parachute payment will be given to Scotland Rugby League in order to develop the game domestically as compensation. The issue is that international rugby league in these countries is almost entirely heritage players - I follow Scottish Rugby League on Instragram and they announced an under 16 team and just about every player is based in the North West England. As far as I can see there is no youth rugby league in Scotland, there are three or four amateur teams but nothing else. I'm just an armchair fan but I don't think the game has really been developed in Scotland at all.

https://www.edinburghnews.scotsman.com/news/edinburgh-st-patricks-day-dropkick-murphys-staff-shocked-as-revellers-camp-out-to-try-and-beat-the-queues-4558342 Utterly bizarre behaviour here.

His son was in the youth system a few years back but didn’t make it to the first team.

Propaganda clip from Izo, a gang leader who is a rival of Barbecue. Izo controls the port in Port-au-Prince which must make importing gear like that a bit easier.

If we stay ahead of Arbroath then I doubt there has been a group of players and manager in our clubs history I would have less confidence in in a play off situation than this one.

It’s Comic Relief tonight and no-one cares. It used to be absolutely massive - every big workplace did something, every school. Now absolutely f**k all. How much money do they raise? When can it be quietly retired?

I thought being anti-woke meant watching Jordan Peterson videos. Very glad to have it confirmed that it’s all about giant tits.

Twenty minute neighbourhoods come to Edinburgh.

No official statement from the club, which makes me think there are a few things playing out behind the scenes - whether that's administration, CEO/chairman leaving, the board resigning or something like that. Our CEO has said we will be making ethics complaints against councillor Paul Oldham, I'm sure that will get it all sorted out!

I don’t think we have debt to anyone other than the directors or those behind the directors. I’m sure that in a previous financial statement we said we don’t Have any bank debt or owe money to HMRC or the usual things that cause clubs to go under. One thing that makes our position hard to work out is that it isn’t entirely clear who owns the club. David Sutherland and Tullochs have stepped back since the relegation in 2017, up until that point it was clear that they were controlling the club - the chairmen were all linked to them and you’d get the occasional statement from Sutherland. Since then the revolving door in the boardroom doesn’t appear to have anyone controlling it, although from what anyone can tell David Sutherland still has the majority control. After relegation is looked like the Savage-McGilvary faction were coming back to prominence with Orion employees appointed as manager (Robertson) and director of football (Danny MacDonald) but that didn’t seem to come to anything. Sutherland is also involved in the battery farm deal, I believe he owns the land. Essentially, I think if these guys say they can’t cover losses any more we will go into admin as we can’t say we will go on as a going concern and I’m not sure who would come in. The Supporters Trust should use this stuff as a way to increase membership but from what I can see it isn’t really set up as meaningful vehicle to try and run the club, although the people involved are good and it’s a positive organisation. Lawrie on CTO posted this breakdown of major shareholders (over 50,000 shares). No. shares Inverness Caledonian Thistle Trust Limited 729500 Caledonian Football Club 600000 Graham Rae 382400 Former Chairman (Muirfield Mills) Inverness Thistle Football Club 300000 Orion Engineering Services Limited 275189 (Alan Savage - Former Director) Dugald McGilvray 275167 Former Chairman Iain McGilvray 191816 Orion Group UK Limited 191317 (Alan Savage - Former Director) David Cameron 175000 Director Roderick Ross 170000 Club President Richard Hillier 164900 (Muirfield Mills) Russell Cameron 102150 (Muirfield Mills) Dornoch Developments Ltd 100000 (Directors include Caroline Clayton, George Fraser, David Sutherland) Paul MacInnes 89150 (Muirfield Mills) Alan McPhee 77150 Former Director (Muirfield Mills) Emeric Innes 57750 (Muirfield Mills) George Fraser 51600 Former Director David Sutherland 50250 Former Director Gordon Allan Munro 50000 Director Caroline Clayton 50000 Anne Sutherland 50000 Catriona Ramsay 50000 Muirfield Mills are the consortium from the US who invested in us about ten years ago. The Inverness Caledonian Thistle Trust Ltd is the vehicle created by David Sutherland to manage the club during his time in charge in the early 2000s. I'm not sure who is involved in that organisation - from memory David Stewart was involved, former MP and MSP for the area. ETA - David Stewart is still a director, as are a few other local people - https://find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/company/SC211723/officers The Caledonian Football Club and Inverness Thistle Football Club shares are refelctive of the membership of each club at the time of the merger. When the Supporters Trust was set up there was some talk of these shares going to the supporters trust but obviously that never happened. EDITED TO ADD - Charles Bannerman confirmed on CTO that these shares are not full voting shares and that they were passed to the Supporters Trust a few years ago.