Moray businessman David Anderson has been handed a deadline of midday Friday to submit a £1.2million offer for Inverness Caledonian Thistle and prevent the club’s lurch into administration.
A specialist in IT and finance, Anderson met with the club’s three-man board of directors in an Inverness hotel on Thursday for talks over a rescue package to help the stricken League One outfit through to the end of this season.
Having teamed up with fellow businessman Don Lawson and marketing consultant Gordon Ritchie, Anderson quizzed the ICT board on the full scale of the club’s debts and cost base before weighing up whether to formalise an offer for a 50.45 per cent stake in the club by high noon.
‘We are up against it with the deadlines,’ said Ritchie after the meeting. ‘It’s not been an easy day, but it was a productive meeting. There is still a glimmer of hope.
‘We split into two rooms where we scrunched the numbers and the investor now has all the information he needs. It was important to know precisely what he might be getting into.’
Administration remains a live threat after a crowdfunder set up to raise emergency funds of £200,000 by this week raised just £85,000.
Manager Duncan Ferguson puts on a brave face as club move closer to administration
Veteran striker Billy Mckay and his team-mates are facing an uncertain future
Hierarchy at proud Highland club are considering a late rescue deal
ICT need £1.6m to cover their costs until the end of the season and, despite agreeing to Friday’s new deadline, directors released a brief holding statement which said: ‘The board can confirm that the time for any interested parties to offer for the club has come and gone. We are currently looking at our position and will make an announcement in the coming days.’
Currently losing £4,000 a day, a public meeting last week warned supporters to brace themselves for the likelihood of administration.
Alan Savage, chairman of the Inverness-based Orion Group and ICT chairman from 2004-2006, has already offered to meet the costs of administrators BDO.
In a second statement, interim chairman Scott Young thanked those who donated to the club’s GoFundMe page, adding: ‘This morning, we were sitting at just over £80,000 which is a fantastic effort from you all. I would just like to clarify that, should we go into administration, all funds raised will be used to fund the club expenses in the administration period and will not be expended on professional fees.
‘There are no penalties for not reaching our target goal and, indeed, the first payments have arrived at the club over the weekend.’
Despite interest over the summer from potential investors from China, Portugal, Ketan Makwana’s Seventy 7 Ventures and ASOS billionaire Anders Holch Povlsen — Scotland’s richest man — the club’s only hope now of avoiding administration lies with Anderson.
Should there be no agreement, the club will land an immediate 15-point penalty this season which would put them on minus-six points and almost certainly condemn them to relegation. In addition, they would face a further five-point penalty next season, a transfer embargo and a review of the club’s SFA licence.
Mail Sport understands that discussions with Povlsen, the Highland-based retail magnate, never made it past the enquiry stage.
Meanwhile, Duncan Ferguson admits his young Caley Thistle squad will have been ‘shocked’ on Thursday as PFA Scotland CEO Fraser Wishart visited to lay bare the dire implications of administration.
The Inverness manager will spend Friday lifting spirits and ensuring the squad is in the right mindset for the weekend visit of Annan Athletic, but he admitted that he was preparing for the worst despite the ongoing talks over a late rescue deal.
The former Rangers, Everton and Newcastle striker described administration as an outcome that ‘nobody should want’ but vowed to stay on and fight to avert relegation, whatever happens.
‘We’re looking at administration, I’d say, so we need to pick up as many points as we can, especially if we end up on minus 15 points,’ said Ferguson.
‘With the team we’ve got and performances, I think we can overcome that and stay in the league.
‘It depends on how much the squad is cut by the administrator. It would be much more difficult with a much younger team. But the team from the last few weeks would overcome those 15 points.
‘I just focus on my players. I am trying to motivate them and pick up the pieces. We will crack on and try to get wins.’
Confirming the talks with Wishart, he added: ‘The players are meeting with the Scottish PFA right now and they are worried. It has been very tough for them behind the scenes.
‘I think they will have been in for a shock. I’ve spoken to Fraser Wishart about what he had to say, but it is the reality, unfortunately.
‘We’ve just got to somehow get through it. They are young players and they have long careers ahead of them. They will get over it.
‘I think we’ve done well in all the games, but certainly it can galvanise them.’
Ferguson is currently working for free, while forking out his own cash to help with player-travel costs and numerous other expenses.
Asked about his own future, he vowed to fight on, whatever happens in the next few days.
‘If administration happens, it will probably happen next week,’ he said. ‘I will then pick up the pieces if I am still here.
‘If the administrator tells you to go, you go. That is the same for everyone in the building.
‘I have not regretted coming here and I enjoy my job. I enjoy being with the players and that’s why I am here.
‘I am fighting for them, and I’ll fight on until told not to.’
